With a capacity of 15,000 for concerts and 12,500 for sports, the Super Arena is the largest in southern Scandinavia, able to attract international performers and pro sports, particularly ice hockey.
The opening ceremony featured a group of Swedish musicians playing alongside the Malmo Symphony Orchestra, a 300-piece choir and eight solo artists, giving a total of more than 200 input channels into the sound system. The musical theme for the shows was The Wonder of Swedish Music, drawing from such influences as early folklore, ABBA, Roxette, Europe and Robyn.
Discreet miking solutions were needed for 52 string instruments. "For this we saw no other option than the proven DPA 4061 miniature omni directional with MHS6001 rubber holder, which we used for the 26 violas, cellos and basses," says Michael Krogh from DPA Soundco. "For the 26 number one and two violins we saw an opportunity to try out the new 4099 instrument mics. We had previously obtained astonishing results testing the DPA 4080 miniature cardioid mic in critical acoustic environments, and had high expectations of the new mics. With a huge speaker system covering a 15,000-seater arena the mantra is headroom, headroom and headroom. Twenty-six supercardioid 4099s gave us an edge on the violin section."
For the show host, as well as guest speakers, Krogh elected to use 4066 omni and 4088 cardioid miniature headband mics. "What can I say - there is no discussion," he says. "In this particular field DPA Microphones has become the de facto standard and are widely accepted, even on close-up TV. Fortunately we have a great deal of them in stock."
(Jim Evans)
