Football team Offenbach Kickers, based in western Germany near Frankfurt, has a new €25 million stadium sponsored by the local Sparda Bank. The ground houses a QSC Q-Sys integrated system that controls, routes and processes all of the audio feeds and systems in the new ground. The state-of-the-art facility was completed in time for the club’s 111th anniversary. Constructed in the style of English stadiums, it boasts four covered spectator areas, capacity for over 20,000 spectators, 10 VIP boxes, a special reception area for business club members and various fashionable retail outlets.
The QSC Q-Sys system controls all the audio in the stadium from the main operations centre, including the associated PA/VA system.
German distributors for QSC, Shure Distribution, carried out performance testing for PowerLight amps – which were in service for many years at the Kickers’ old stadium – so the devices could been recommissioned for use in the new facility.
QSC equipment is also used to power the loudspeakers hanging in the stadium eaves. Elsewhere, a QSC CX302 power amp powers new fill-in loudspeakers at the outlying reaches of the stadium.
The centre in the main stand houses the Q-Sys Core 1000 processor allowing it to act as the audio control centre for the whole ground. This is linked to the other control rooms via a fibre-optic cable network, enabling full integration with the Q-Sys I/O Frames in the individual stand control centres. These in turn act as the audio I/O boxes for the inputs and outputs in each stand, converting the analogue signals to digital and back as required.
Most of the design work on the Q-Sys platform was completed on the Q-Sys Designer software before installation took place on site. The completed design was loaded into the Core 1000 unit when they were installed at the stadium, and final adjustments were then made to accommodate the practical realities of the installation.
All the audio systems in the ground can be adjusted and controlled from a wireless-connected laptop if required. Alexander Hülshorst, head of the stadium reconstruction project at the design and construction company Beckhoff Technik GmbH, commented: “I’ve never worked with an audio networking platform that was so easy to integrate as Q-Sys.”
