Sopot Mega Music has installed an audio system at the new Gdynia Municipal football stadium in Poland, featuring D.A.S. loudspeakers, Ashly network-enabled amplifiers and Symetrix SymNet DSPs.
The system is comprised of nearly 50 zones. Each zone contains two D.A.S. loudspeakers – one on an inner ring and a second on an outer ring. A delay separates each pair such that the signals that arrive at the spectators are appropriately signal-aligned. At the client’s request, a Bosch Praesideo public address system handles the new stadium’s corridors and waiting areas. Although primarily reserved for emergency information, the Bosch system does receive output from the Symetrix SymNet DSPs, allowing the client to provide reinforcement away from the grandstands as well.
The control room contains a Crest XR-20 console, which provides a familiar surface for the stadium’s sound technicians to wrangle input sources, such as announcement microphones, music and pre-recorded messages. A laptop PC uses Ashly’s Protea software to control and monitor the Ashly Networkable amplifiers. To prevent tampering, Mega Music used Protea’s software platform to disable the front panel controls of the NE amps (including the on/off switch). Zone parameters are addressed from SymVue, the computer-based interface software from Symetrix.
The control room and the three node rooms distribute the DSP and amplifier load. Four Symetrix SymNet 8×8 DSPs, four Symetrix CobraLink units, and three Symetrix BreakOut 12 expanders provide the system with open-architecture equalisation, matrix routing, volume control, and preliminary loudspeaker conditioning. Ten Ashly DSP-enabled ne8250PE, three Ashly DSP-enabled ne4250PE and two ne1600 amplifiers deliver power to Gdynia’s many loudspeakers. The Ashly Networkable amplifiers provide protection limiting and delays.
Piotr Nowiński, systems engineer at Sopot, Mega Music’s Poland-based audio/visual installation division, commented: “The Ashly amplifiers are remarkably powerful – delivering 250 watts per channel – and yet packed inside a two-rack-space unit. That way, we were able to conserve rack space and still give the client a very powerful system. In addition, the ease with which we were able to network the Ashly units was helpful. The Symetrix SymNet DSP is flexible – so that we can create any processing task we need – and sounds uniquely musical. With SymVue, we are able to hide all of the complicated processing ‘under the hood,’ only giving the user control of those aspect that are relevant. In addition, both Ashly and Symetrix build reliable units that are backed, on those rare instances when it is needed, by great customer support.”
