Electro-Voice has provided sound reinforcement at the central Medal Plaza for the World Skiing Championships in Germany. The company supplied XLVC line arrays driven by CPS and TG7 amplifiers for the Garmisch-Patenkirchen event attended by more than 100,000 fans.
The Bavarian resort is currently bidding, together with Munich, to host the Winter Olympics in 2018. The entire organisational committee and all service providers were anxious to be seen in the best possible light. TC Showtechnik of Weilheim, responsible for the lighting and sound reinforcement in a number of key event locations, was no exception.
The centre of the sound reinforcement design was the XLVC line array from Electro-Voice. "We used EV's LAPS line-array simulation software to ascertain the ideal set-up for the event," reports Martin Schulze, who manages the Bavarian rental company jointly with Stefan Rehtaler.
The main array in Medal Plaza consisted of twelve EV XLD281 cabinets per side complemented by flown XCS312 cardioid bass elements to enhance the lower midrange. To boost the very bottom end, twelve EV Xsubs were positioned beneath the stage. To provide homogeneous coverage for all 4,000 listeners, eight Electro-Voice XLE loudspeakers plied those at the very front of the audience as well as to the left and right of the stage with near-, in- and out-fill, as appropriate. The XLD hangs were driven by 16-channel amp racks made up of two Electro-Voice CPS 4.10 amps and one CPS 8.5 amp each.
"This allowed us to drive in each case three stacks actively in three-way mode, thereby achieving considerably greater acoustic differentiation," explains Schulze. The subwoofers were driven by EV TG 7 power amplifiers, whilst foldback to the performers on stage was provided by side-fills comprising Electro-Voice's tried-and-tested MT2 bass elements combined with PX1122 tops and PX1152 wedges, with the entire monitoring system powered by CP3000S amps. Meanwhile two Electro-Voice NetMax N8000-1500 digital matrix controllers employing FIR-Drive technology made it possible for engineers – via Electro-Voice's IRIS-Net – to intervene promptly wherever necessary to adjust the output or frequency response of the system.
Adverse weather conditions, with temperature variations in excess of 20 degrees Celsius, put all kit to the test. "Once again, systems from Electro-Voice have proved that they are entirely impervious to cold, rain, snow and even ice," concludes Schulze.