The Sazka Arena's Apogee system was designed by Soning, one of the Czech Republic's leading consulting firms, as were other audio/video and broadcast systems in the venue. According to Andrej Hronec, owner of AudioPro, Apogee's distributor in Prague, Soning focused heavily on the latest technologies to ease the normally difficult task of using one facility for a wide variety of events.
Sazka Arena, expected to attract up to 1,500,000 visitors a year, is arguably the most modern multi-purpose venue for sports, culture, entertainment, exhibits, fairs, and other events in Europe. Its technology includes a closed-circuit TV system, internal TV studio, display panels, huge video cube, mobile stands, high-end acoustics, illumination, and telecommunication system, and full AES-EBU digital audio distribution all the way to the loudspeakers.
Designed to be the Czech Republic's leading social, entertainment, and shopping area, the arena provides a capacity for 18,000 spectators, 2,460 club and luxury seats, 66 skyboxes, 4 party boxes, and 2,900 places in bars, restaurants and cafes.
Soning's design utilizes 90 Apogee APL-500DSP speakers flown in eight clusters near the parameter of the main floor, plus a ring of APL-500DSP speakers to cover the upper most seating areas. Additionally, eight Apogee APL-800DSP speakers are mounted under the center scoreboard. Apogee's APL-500DSP loudspeakers provide the same superior sonic quality and performance as the Apogee AE-5, one of the industry's most popular and respected loudspeaker systems. The bi-amped APL-500DSP features one 12" LF driver, one 1" HF driver, and a 400W RMS amplifier for each driver. The Apogee APL-800DSP loudspeaker features a 15" LF driver, a 2" HF driver, and dual 400W amplifiers.
The DSP versions of Apogee's powered loudspeakers utilize ADAM, enabling designers and operators to create and control rooms, arrays, and subarrays of DSP-equipped Apogee powered loudspeaker systems from any PC - and instantly access an abundance of information from each. "With ADAM," says Barry Grzebik, director of engineering for Apogee Sound, "no other network is needed, there are no licensing or per node fees, the customer owns the software outright - and the facility owner's cost savings are enormous." Grzebik added that ADAM enables smaller facilities to benefit from the overall simplification of their audio systems.
(Lee Baldock)
