The new Mingshan Stadium in the Ya'an City of Sichuan, China, is a truly multi-purpose venue
China - One of the most significant construction projects to take place following the devastating Lushan earthquake of 2013, the new Mingshan Stadium in the Ya'an City of Sichuan, China, is a truly multi-purpose venue suitable for hosting sports, entertainment, conferences, exhibitions and more. To ensure sufficient processing power and flexibility for both sports events and entertainment performances, Mingshan Stadium has been equipped with a pair of Symetrix Solus open-architecture standalone DSPs.

The audio installation was led by locally-based integrator Chuengdu Eagle Huang Technology Co., Ltd., whilst EZPro Sound & Light Co., Ltd., was responsible for system design and product supply. As well as dealing with a high reverberation time, they needed to ensure excellent speech intelligibility and ensure a consistent SPL of 95dB in at least 80% of the venue.

Determining that a distributed sound configuration was the most appropriate way solution, the two companies pressed ahead with a design featuring seven separate clusters of Community R series loudspeakers for sports events. Providing the processing power are two Symetrix SymNet Solus 8 DSPs, which EZPro's Xuejun Lian observes have brought several notable benefits to the installation.

"The SymNet Solus 8 DSP is a very reliable piece of hardware, but one should also highlight its multiple control capabilities," says Lian. "For example, it can be controlled through the SymNet Designer software or third-party touch panels - the kind of flexibility that is vital for a project of this scale."

Meanwhile, the DSP's open architecture and extensive library of design templates allow each loudspeaker cluster to be optimised as required. "This enables us to get the best possible intelligibility results for the room depending on the acoustic requirements of each event," notes Lian.

The SymNet Solus DSPs are also utilised for the separate PA system installed to handle performance-based engagements. This deployment is based around Mackie (RunningMan) HDA powered line array speakers and subwoofers, and once again the SymNet Solus devices quickly proved their worth.

"Each speaker has to be delayed and equalized independently to form a delayed subwoofer array and achieve the best possible coverage of the seating areas," says Lian. "The SymNet Solus 8 is the perfect tool to realise this objective."

The processors' logic outputs also allow the Mingshan Stadium fire alarm system to be prioritised - another factor that makes them particularly suitable for large venue installations of this kind.

Nearly six months on from the opening of the venue, the audio system continues to perform to the delight of operators and visitors alike. As a spokesperson for Chengdu Eagle Huang Technology Co., Ltd., observes: "The system delivers the required levels of SPL and speech clarity. Not only does it achieve even coverage of the audience areas, it also avoids detrimental sound reflections. The result is that we can achieve the perfect sound - no matter what type of event is taking place."

(Jim Evans)


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