The New Administrative Capital Stadium in Cairo is home to a stadium-wide Harman Professional audio system, relying on a JBL solution for clear, reliable communication.
Standing out as one of Egypt’s largest and most strategically important sports and entertainment venues, the New Administrative Capital Stadium serves as a hub for football matches, national events, and large-scale public gatherings.
The stadium required a system that can maintain intelligibility and consistency under demanding conditions. The stadium also accommodates concerts, ceremonies, and public programming, requiring an installation that could meet the needs of daily operations and large-scale events, where high ambient noise levels and wide coverage areas can present challenges for a comprehensive audio system.
At the heart of the system is a distributed loudspeaker design built around JBL VLA-C256 loudspeaker systems, configured into 20 clusters and installed around the stadium’s perimeter. Each cluster consists of multiple VLA-C256 elements arranged in compact vertical arrays which allow for precise control of vertical dispersion and long-throw coverage across the seating area.
The clusters are mounted along the roof structure and aimed downward to ensure consistent sound levels while minimising reflections and acoustic interference.
This configuration delivers uniform coverage across all spectator areas, with measured sound pressure levels averaging between 96 and 100 dBA, with peak levels reaching up to 108 dBA. System tuning achieved level consistency within ±3 dB across most seating zones, while speech transmission index values between 0.55 and 0.65 to ensure announcements remain clear and intelligible, even during peak crowd noise.
The audio infrastructure is built on a networked backbone combining BSS BLU-806 signal processors and Crown DCi DriveCore Network Series amplifiers. The BSS processors are used to manage routing, equalisation, delay alignment, and zoning, which allows operators to control audio distribution across different areas of the stadium such as seating sections, concourses, and VIP zones.
The system is integrated into the stadium’s fibre-optic network, enabling low-latency audio transmission between the central control room and distributed amplifier locations. This approach is designed to improve signal integrity over long distances while supporting redundancy, ensuring critical announcements and emergency messaging always remain available.
JBL VLA-C series loudspeakers were selected with environmental durability in mind, featuring IP55-rated weather protection to withstand high temperatures, dust, and exposure typical of outdoor venues in the region.
This ensures consistent long-term performance while reducing maintenance requirements.