August 25, 2025
At Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, they take their football very seriously, with their Mustangs finishing in the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024. A good example is their new $100-million, 192,500-square-foot Garry Weber End Zone Complex at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. It anchors one end of the 32,000-seat stadium with an incredible new facility featuring three levels of athletics facilities, function rooms and premium seating spaces.
SMU also takes the comfort of their fans and neighbors very seriously. Case in point, they used a 257′ run of AIL Sound Walls to surround the new complex’s rooftop equipment farm to mitigate unwanted noise. The Silent Protector (Absorptive) equipment surround can be seen here to the left of the jumbo screen.
Silent Protector is one of the industry’s top-performing sound walls
Our Silent Protector sound absorption wall panels are engineered for maximum noise reduction. Made from recycled and recyclable perforated PVC panels and filled with acoustical mineral wool, Silent Protector is one of the industry’s top-performing sound walls, with a Sound Transmission Class (STC) rating of up to 39 and a Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) of 0.95.
Plus, the lighter weight of AIL Sound Walls makes them ideal for rooftop applications. Our in-house engineering team helps ensure our sound barrier wall systems integrate easily with the roof structures of both new and existing buildings.
Building trusted project partner relationships
Installation took place partly during the football season, so we had to make the limited time frames work. We also went to the site to help coordinate the installation.
One interesting feature of this installation was our design and supply of custom kicker braces to help support this large rooftop installation, as shown in the detail drawing below.
We built a trusted partner relationship by meeting with the contractor on-site, keeping the lines of communications open between engineering, sales, operations and the customer. It was a team effort among all the parties involved. In fact, JE Dunn Construction emailed us when the project was complete just to say how happy they were with our system’s ease of installation and how good it looked. Kudos to them for a job well done!