Powersoft drives new Olympic stadium audio
- Details
With an immense size of 866,667sqm, the newly built venue boasts three main zones: the stadium, with 60,000 seats; the gymnasium with 18,000, and the natatorium with 4,000. A venue of this size required a colossal audio system that could meet the ambitious needs of the stadium throughout the upcoming National Games and beyond. The responsibility of designing an audio system spanning across these three zones was given to Powersoft’s Chinese distributor EZPro.
“The brief we were given was to create a world class audio system, that was advanced, stable, cost effective and flexible,” commented Yongjun Jiang, EZPro’s technical manager of the project. “With the system working as an entertainment, vocal and emergency audio system, it was vital we used the best in the business to create the most reliable and impactful system possible. For us, this meant using top brands with the best technology on the market, including Powersoft.”
EZPro chose to rely on a total of 236 of Eastern Acoustic Works’ (EAW) loudspeakers, nine Allen & Heath digital mixers, four Symetrix digital processors, powered by 43 Powersoft Quattrocanali 4804 DSP+D amplifiers and controlled by ArmoníaPlus.
EZPro chose to use 136 EAW loudspeakers for the stadium. Driving these speakers are 34 of Powersoft’s Dante enabled Quattrocanali 4804 DSP+D amplifiers.
“With reliability as the most vital requirement, choosing amplifiers that were up to the immense task of driving this system was crucial,” said Yongjun. “Powersoft amplifiers have an incredible reputation, we knew them to be highly efficient and extremely reliable, not to mention their immense power output, which made them the perfect choice for us.”
For the diamond shaped gymnasium, sound reverberation presented a challenge, along with the need for the space to transform into a basketball court or an ice hockey rink when needed. For this area, EZPro opted for a total of 70 x EAW loudspeakers, a combination of RSX212Ls, RSX18Fs, RSX129s and VFM129is. Accompanying the loudspeakers are three Allen & Heath digital mixers and two Symetrix digital processors.
“The way they are organised provides acute direction of sound and reduce any diffusion into the bleachers by the stage, which improves speech comprehension in the venue,” said Yongjun.
For these 70 speakers, a single Powersoft Quattrocanali 4804 DSP+D is able to provide ample power and high-quality audio.
Finally, the natatorium features 30 EAW loudspeakers powered by eight Powersoft Quattrocanali 4804s DSP+D, along with two Allen & Heath digital mixers and two Symetrix processors. “The Powersoft amplifiers play a significant role throughout the entire venue,” said Yongjun. “Main signals go directly into the amps with Dante cards before feeding the loudspeaker systems, which ensures the best signal quality. The amps are capable of detecting and switching channels automatically as required, whilst dealing with all the digital and analogue signals flawlessly.”
The entire installation spanned just over a year and was completed in July 2020. “Overall we were really pleased with how the installation turned out,” said Yongjun. “Everything went exactly as we planned, and the delivery and final result have been commended by the client.”
