Now dubbed the capital of the Costa del Sol, Málaga - whose 2,800 year history makes the port city one of Europe's oldest - has a profusion of excellent tourist destinations including the world famous Picasso Museum, a pedestrianised shopping centre, sea port, innovative restaurants and stylish hotels - many featuring trendy rooftop terraces with bars, pools and stunning views. And with its subtropical-Mediterranean climate, Málaga enjoys one of the warmest winters in Europe.
The main economic and financial centre of southern Spain, Málaga thrives on tourism, construction and technology services, while other sectors such as transportation and logistics are beginning to expand, with the growth of the Andalusía Technology Park (PTA) setting a fine example.
But what Málaga also has in abundance, like any modern city, is road traffic. From its suburbs to the historic old town, its streets are crowded with vehicles. That's why it's about to follow the example of Spain's other large cities with the opening in 2014 of the MetroMálaga, a light metro train network that will eventually see six lines built, radiating outwards from the city centre where the lines are in tunnels, the rest being overground. It's Andalucía's largest infrastructure investment in history.
The two first lines are currently under construction. Line 1 will reach from the centre to the University of Málaga; and Line 2 to the José María Martín Carpena Arena. Some 25m passengers are expected in the first year, and the two lines will connect the centre of the city with access to essential services such as hospitals, the University campus, the City of Justice, the Sports Palace and the port.
Málaga-based LDA AudioTech, Spain's leading specialists in PA/VA, have been brought in to provide all audio systems for the first phase, covering 22 stations around the city, of which 12 are underground in the centre, the rest at street level. The company's experience includes audio integration for the metro/subway networks of Bilbao and Seville.
Currently being installed, the complex design will include 52 separate sound systems, in 67 zones. Based on a CobraNet network over a dedicated VLAN, everything is supervised from a central control station 20km from the city centre. The network's central station is integrated with train and bus terminals, and each station on the network is divided into three different zones: the booking hall, platforms and an interior zone.
Renkus-Heinz Iconyx systems form a key part of the project, as LDA marketing manager Diego Velazquez explains,"At every underground station at platform level, facing the passenger entrance, is a single Renkus-Heinz IC24, equipped with an LDA STE21 device for Ethernet control, and to monitor the array with LDA's SIME software at the central control room. So the close integration between Renkus-Heinz's and LDA's technology provides station managers with a combination of centrally coordinated announcements, and assurance that everything is working correctly, in real time. There's also complete control at local level, with microphones in some stations, mostly LDA MCA microphones, an 8 zone microphone, with LDA STV series multichannel amplifiers and an LDA ZES-80 digital multi-zone matrix system."
(Jim Evans)
