The Norrköping Dolphins, a Swedish basketball team, has built itself a brand new home venue, turning to local audio contractor, Padab, for its sound requirements. A Yamaha EtherSound distribution network was specified for the 3,000 capacity Stadium Arena.
The arena comprises four main areas. The main arena hosts basketball matches and other sports, live concerts and a wide variety of community events. Meanwhile a sports bar and restaurant provide further recreation opportunities, with the venue’s main entrance combining circulation area, enquiry point and ticket office, etc.
“The main requirement was that sound could be distributed from a central source to each of the four zones, but with local control in each,†said Padab installation specialist Joachim Bergling.
Central control and audio distribution is handled by a Yamaha DME24N digital mix engine with MY16-ES64 EtherSound card. Four DME Satellite DME4io-ES units are installed - one at the Front of House position in the main arena, with one each (plus CP4SW remote control) in the sports bar, restaurant and main entrance.
During a sports event, the sound operator uses a mobile rack with an eight channel mixer. Sound sources such as an announcer’s microphone and background music source are fed from the mixer to the DME4io-ES, which sends the signal via EtherSound to the DME24N, distributing it to the other areas as required.
“The DME4io-ES in the main arena is also used for processing of the announcer’s microphone, as the level can vary tremendously,†said Bergling.
The flexibility of the system also allows sound from any event in the main arena - such as music from live performances - to be routed to the sports bar, restaurant and main entrance zones.
A house sound reinforcement system is provided in the main arena, comprising ten Yamaha Installation Series IF2115 full range loudspeakers with two IF2112 for downfill, all driven by XP7000 and XP5000 amplifiers.
In the other three zones, the DME4io-ES in each is used both for receiving the EtherSound stream and to provide individual CD / microphone inputs and processing functions, plus local speaker control adjusted by the CP4SW remote control.
The entrance and the restaurant feature 16 100V speakers driven by Yamaha XP3500 amplifiers, while the Sports Bar has four 100V speakers and a ‘sound roof’ driven by Yamaha XP3500, P3500S and P5000S amplifiers.