Qingdao World Expo City
China - Powersoft amplifier platforms have been chosen to drive the new audio system installed at Qingdao World Expo City (QWEC), a 32,000sq.m conference venue in the ancient coastal city of Qingdao.
The upgrade, handled by EZ Pro, focussed on QWEC’s Great Hall, which accommodates up to 1,500 people, has an area of 3,000 sqm, and can even be divided into two parts.
“We hoped to create a destination that is, in terms of scale and technology, far ahead of anything else in Northeast Asia,” says general manager Zhao Guangjun.
The venue was to be equipped with world-class audio-visual equipment to meet the needs of a variety of international and domestic high-end conferences. With this forward-thinking ethos in mind, Powersoft amplifier platforms were chosen.
“Powersoft products offer a traditionally amazing sound quality and reliability,” says Alan Ho, senior VP of business development at EZ Pro. “The Smart Rails Management (SRM) technology allows us to maximise the efficiency of the system and drastically reduce power consumption at any load and for any usage conditions. Its exclusive dampening coefficient compensation technology can also solve problems like line power loss that is caused by remote transmission.”
In total, EZ Pro installed 46 of Powersoft’s Quattrocanali 1204 amplifier platforms, as well as 23 of the Quattrocanali 2404 DSP+D. These particular versions of the Quattrocanali grant the integrator in-depth control and monitoring of all the signals via ArmonìaPlus, so that the sound can be tailored to suit any customer's needs.
In this case, EZ Pro selected EAW’s Anna and Anya loudspeakers, and Otto subwoofers for the Great Hall, all of which are part of the manufacturer’s Adaptive System series. These larger units are complemented by VFR series loudspeakers and CXT coaxial ceiling speakers.
Pan Acoustics PB steerable column loudspeakers and additional EAW cabinets were utilised elsewhere for the dissipation of background music around the venue. The hall’s audio system is controlled by an Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing desk and a CDM stage box, with an Allen & Heath GLD digital mixer as backup and a Symetrix Prism for audio processing.
“We only had a short time period to complete a heavy task,” says Ho. “The end user had a clear idea with regards to the requirements for the audio system design, but the job was far from simple. We were able to draw on our experience of working on other conference centres to ensure the functional requirements were met.”
(Jim Evans)

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