Project Profile: M&T Bank Stadium

In 2013 the M&T Bank Stadium, home to the Baltimore Ravens football team, became the first existing outdoor professional sports facility in the US to earn a LEED Gold rating from the US Green Building Council. Built in 1996, the stadium has five levels—the lower bowl, club level, 300 suites level, 400 suites level, and upper bowl—and a seating capacity of 71,008. Sustainability features include a state-of-the-art Reliable Controls building automation system, water-efficient restroom fixtures, and alternative transportation initiatives for staff and the public.

Authorized Dealer Pritchett Controls retrofitted the building automation system in the stadium with a Reliable Controls solution that controls all mechanical equipment in the facility.

This is a large project with 1,275 Reliable Controls hardware products, including MACH-Pro1, MACH-Pro2, MACH-ProAir, MACH-ProSys, and MACH-ProZone controllers and hundreds of SMART-Sensor devices. All MACH controllers used in the stadium are BTL Listed BACnet Building Controllers that allow data sharing, alarm and event management, scheduling, trending, and device and network management using the BACnet protocol. SMART-Sensor and SMART-Sensor EPD devices are networked-sensor solutions that provide an excellent means to improve energy and operational efficiency.

Pritchett Controls used RC-Studio, an easy to learn and use BACnet Advanced Operator Workstation software program, to quickly deploy the system and restore proper operation of existing equipment in the stadium. They also installed RC-Archive software, which gives stadium owners full control over building data. RC-Archive delivers a robust, dependable record of performance with continuous downloads of data logs to a SQL database. And thanks to the suite of diagnostic tools in RC-Toolkit software, Pritchett Controls was able to optimize network communications in the facility.

The schedule for this project was very demanding, but the team at Pritchett Controls was able to complete the work an impressive three months ahead of plans. “Thanks to our fantastic team, the rock-solid performance of the Reliable Controls product, our team of subcontractors, and a highly educated and involved owner, we were able to turn this challenging project into a major win on all fronts,” said Nate Pritchett, executive vice president at Pritchett Controls.