The Vaillant Arena in the city of Davos has overhauled its audio system, turning to Phil’s Concert and Showtechnique to implement an EAW solution. The ice hockey stadium replaced an old system, which had been built up from a number different speakers.
Davos is located in the Swiss mountains, is famous for hosting the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is one of the most popular winter sports resorts in Europe. The Vaillant Arena is located in the centre of the city and is home of the Spengler Cup.
In 1980 the arena got its first roof, after 60 years in the open air. Over the years the audio system grew to become to a patchwork of dozens of different speakers in many different sizes, positioned in all possible corners of the roof and truss.
Finally the decision was made to completely redesign and replace the audio system and local audio company, Phil’s Concert and Showtechnique GmbH, was hired.
Due to aesthetic reasons and the presence of a video cube, a central cluster was out of the question. An EAW JFL210 compact line array system was selected for the main audio distribution.
To maximise coverage, the system was designed around 42 speakers set in 12 clusters — ranging from two elements in the corners to six elements for the big north stand, mounted around the ice-field. Each JFL210 is driven full range by its own amp channel using the internal crossover.
The ice-field itself is covered by a further four EAW MK2396 full-range trapezoidal speakers, which have been integrated in the lighting system.
Setting-up and tuning of the system was undertaken by Samuel Wild from Dr. W.A. Günther AudioSystems AG (the distributor for the amplifiers and DSPs), Harry Horlacher from Swiss EAW representative GoWild AG and Phil Benesch, owner of Phil’s Concert & Showtechnique.