Switzerland - Soundweb London digital signal processing from BSS Audio was recently specified in the fourth biggest ice hockey stadium in the country, with a capacity of 8,000. Built in 1995 the Resega Ice Arena in Lugano is home to the Hockey Club Lugano HCL, which has won the Swiss National Hockey Championship seven times within the last 20 years.

As a result, their home games are packed, with all matches accompanied by a continuous cacophony of crowd noise. This, coupled with a critical reverberation, explains why two different installed sound systems have both been replaced within the last ten years after being deemed unsatisfactory.

In spring last year, the town of Lugano issued a tender for a new sound system which needed to fulfil the sound reinforcement requirements of a wide range of events and also meet the EN 60849 regulation for evacuation purposes.

The concept of linking a HiQnet pro audio system with a 100V evacuation set-up has already been successfully proven in the Stade de Suisse soccer arena in Bern - quoted by the locally- based branch of Tyco Fire & Integrated Solutions. Together all technical criteria were met, and the Lugano likewise approved this solution at the end of June 2006.

The Soundweb London BLU-80 is configured for 12 analogue inputs and four analogue outputs, the inputs processed before being transmitted to Crown CTs amplifiers, fitted with USP3/CN modules, via CobraNet. The integration also features multiples of distributed JBL PD 5212WRC enclosures and a Soundcraft M12 mixer for the stadium announcer.

(Jim Evans)


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