FIRST CLASS SOUND FOR THE EISHALLE, STRAUBING, GERMANY

The existing systems in the Eishalle—boxes from EV's Sx series—were not sacrificed to the new sound concept but rather intelligently repositioned. Now they serve as the delay line in the newly created upper tier of the hall's south side. All the other grandstands are served by FRX+660PI systems from Electro-Voice driven in bi-amping mode—speakers that demonstrated their outstanding audio quality and absolute reliability at a number of stadiums (including those in Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Hanover) during soccer's World Cup, and have already established an outstanding reputation in the fixed installation sector. Nineteen of these coaxial, horn-loaded two-way systems now guarantee the even distribution of direct sound to all spectators. The upshot is optimal intelligibility, despite the long reverberation time typical of most ice stadiums. Furthermore, the presence of a 15" driver to handle the LF/MF range makes full-range music reproduction possible. Further investment in sub-bass systems was therefore deemed unnecessary.

 

The heart of the new system is a Dynacord P64 signal processor. Behind it lies a 32 x 32 matrix with a freely programmable DSP structure and a processing capacity expandable to 1000 MIPS (million instructions per second). Equipped with a microphone input card and an audio output card, the system allows input signals to be routed flexibly, easily adaptable to whatever application the stadium needs at any given moment (match venue, skating rink, discotheque…), and distributed as dictated by the requirements of the situation.

 

As is the case with an ice hockey team, the effectiveness of an audio system is dependent upon the power it is capable of harnessing. To supply the installed enclosures with the requisite power, system designers opted for a rack armed with six DYNACORD PowerH H2500 and four Dynacord PowerH H5000 power amplifiers. All the amplifiers are equipped with RCM-26 Remote Control Modules. The result is signal processing, remote control and remote supervision of championship quality!

 

The Straubing Tigers

 

Trained by German ice hockey legend Erich Kühnhackl, the Straubing Tigers have put up a tremendous show so far since their promotion to the first division. Filled with young and ambitious players, the team has managed some spectacular results against supposedly stronger opposition.

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