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New TOA PA/VA system for Aden stadium

The 22 May Stadium - situated in the southern Yemeni city of Aden - now boasts 96 of TOA's SR-A12 loudspeakers, arranged into 16 towers positioned around the field of play.

As part of a major refurbishment project, TOA has supplied a completely new PA/VA system to the 22 May Stadium in the southern Yemeni city of Aden. The system comprises no fewer than 96 of the company’s SR-A12 loudspeakers arranged into 16 towers positioned evenly around the field of play. These are all driven by DA series amplifiers while the sound is controlled by the company’s D-2000 audio matrix mixer. A VX-2000 system has also been supplied to supply emergency announcements.

The impetus for the installation, and for the renewal of the 26,000-capacity stadium’s systems generally, was the 2010 Gulf Cup football tournament – the 20th such event to be held but the first to be staged by Yemen. However, the arena can also be used for athletics, other sports and live music concerts, when its capacity can rise to 30,000.

TOA’s K Tanaka offers some background to the project: “Temperatures in Aden can reach 5ºC with humidity of more than 80%, so any audio system belonging to a commercial facility has to be capable of withstanding those extremes. In this respect, TOA’s long-standing reputation for providing reliable products, together with the ‘Made in Japan’ motif that always implies durability, proved very important in determining the shape of the project.”

The tender process for such a prestigious project was still very competitive, though, with rival technical concepts being brought to the table by other manufacturers.

“In the end, the decision was between our 100V line system and a competitor’s proposal for a decentralised system using powered speakers,” Tanaka recalls. “We convinced the client that our centralised, 100V line solution would result in easier installation and maintenance, greater security, and smoother integration with other electronic systems in the facility. But we also had to conduct a series of audio demonstrations to convey the sound quality and clarity that are associated with the TOA brand worldwide.” 

The final system design was sold to the end customer via Atlas Trading Store, TOA’s sole distributor in Yemen. Atlas Trading has been working with TOA since 1977 and, having initially been concerned only with sales, is now engaging in more systems integration and project work. Final testing and commissioning was carried out by Atlas Trading in conjunction with TOA Japan.

www.toa.eu