COOPERS STADIUM

from MONDO | STADIA - Issue 30 - June | July

BRINGING NEXT GENERATION VENUE TECHNOLOGY, DIRECT TO YOU!

Adelaide, Australia

The world-class, multi-use Coopers Stadium in the South Australian city of Adelaide has installed a brand-new d&b audiotechnik A-Series system to enable clear speech and full spectrum sound as it hosts games in the 2023 Women’s FIFA World Cup.

The sound system upgrade was part of a wider AV enhancement initiative, which saw new LED screens and lighting in addition to improvements to its grandstands. Adelaide-based audiovisual production and installation company AJS was tasked with designing an audio solution that would deliver sonic quality, clarity and volume, and be suitable for rigging within the existing stadium structure. The team required flexibility in both physical setup and acoustic control, with directivity and system unity key to success.

AJS Managing Director, Andrew Gayler, and his team landed on the d&b A-Series, which combines the ease of point source clusters with the level and frequency distribution of line arrays, and flexible acoustic control in an augmented format. The d&b system was supplied by NAS Solutions, which also provided support on the project.

“With a modest 25m throw but an almost 90-degree coverage required, a line array would have required too many elements and thus impacted on-site lines and cost,” said Andrew. “A point source would have been unable to give us the ability to control the levels at the balcony area versus the lower floor so the d&b A-Series Augmented Array was deemed the perfect solution given those constraints.”

Four pods housing four A-Series loudspeakers each are now installed at the stadium’s West Stand, driven by d&b 30D amplifiers. Over in the East Stand, six pods are rigged containing three A-Series d&b cabinets. The A-Series system was designed using the d&b ArrayProcessing software, with assistance from Doug Pringle at NAS Solutions and the d&b team in Germany.

“Using d&b ArrayCalc software we were quickly able to calculate the number of cabinets required to obtain the vertical coverage as well as the number of pods for the stadium width,” Andrew continued.

“We then leveraged d&b expertise and took on board their recommendations to finalise the equipment schedule. The rigging proved challenging as there had never been a flown audio system installed nor any consideration for having one at the time of the original structure build. We were fortunate that our project lead at AJS, Tim Bekker, was able to design a bespoke assembly to suit the structure constraints and that a local company was able to manufacture in a matter of days.

“The d&b ArrayProcessing software makes a noticeable improvement, especially in upper frequencies. Specifically, it enables a more linear front/rear SPL within the stadium. This is d&b’s ‘democracy for listeners’ at play. We use ArrayProcessing extensively on our live events and knew how important it is to deploy.”

In the North and South Stands, the team opted for d&b V7P point source loudspeakers, rigged high above the grandstand on 6.5-metre masts that are connected to the back wall. These are powered by d&b 40D amplifiers. And in the revamped Corporate Boxes on the West Stand, attendees hear announcements, gameplay and music via 14 d&b 8S point source loudspeakers.

“The most impressive feature of the A-Series is how effective it is keeping audio off the pitch and how intelligible the audio is within the stadium, which was a key requirement,” says Gayler. “The system easily exceeds the required SPL, and coverage is the reason for multiple cabinets and not output. Our client had immediate feedback from regular patrons about how ‘crisp’ the sound was. We are also particularly pleased with how the system looks as most seemed unaware of where the audio was coming from given how compact the pods and V7P cabinets are.”

Andrew recognised that the d&b ArrayCalc software is critical to all d&b system deployments, as it determines cabinet location and inter cabinet angles. He could then feed this information into the d&b R1 Remote control software, that enables d&b devices to be remotely controlled using both Ethernet and CAN-Bus, which in turn configures all of the d&b amplifiers with a vast array of configuration settings including the ArrayProcessing settings.

“This meant all of the parameters are stored within the amplifiers, and we use Q-Sys to handle routing to those amplifiers,” explained Andrew.

“Even though we have deployed a vast number of d&b systems, we often still reach out to NAS in Australia for expertise as they in turn have worked on a plethora of these types of deployments. Ultimately, we are happy to draw on the expertise of d&b either locally or in Germany as they have consistently guided us to achieve some fantastic outcomes. We explain to our clients that we have this amazing support behind us which we hope assists in building confidence to use our local services.”

Games are already being played in the stadium using the d&b A-Series system. The 2023 Women’s FIFA World Cup matches kick off in July, with Coopers Stadium hosting five high-level games. MANUFACTURER:

More than a match.

A great lineup of sound reinforcement technology. A customized look. The renown d&b Workﬂ ow. All this and world-class support from start to ﬁnish. d&b Stadium solutions are designed so that everyone wins. (We like to play fair.)