The Erdgas Sportpark, as it is known, has a seating capacity of over 15,000 and includes eight boxes, 320 business seats and 30 places for the handicapped. After the first match in the new stadium, against Hamburger SV of the Bundesliga on 20 September, the club was able to report a full house. Three days prior to this, local inhabitants were given an opportunity to admire the city's new sporting landmark at an open door event to celebrate the completion of the project.
To compete in the highest leagues from the standpoint of sound technology as well, the city of Halle commissioned the construction company GP Papenburg AG, which entrusted the installation to ssm euromicron (Schkopau branch). Subcontractors Studio Elektroakustik of Leipzig convinced those responsible with their design for the sound reinforcement system and the same company was entrusted with the realization.
After elaborating an acoustic design with the help of computer simulations conducted by Richard Merget of Bosch Communication Systems, the team set to work in July to assemble the control room equipment and install the stadium loudspeakers. After meticulous resting of the sound reinforcement system in the course of July and August, the system was measured acoustically by Richard Merget in time to be handed over to the building clients on 15 September.
The installation in the Erdgas Sportpark includes 28 EVF-1152S/99-PIB loudspeakers systems from Electro-Voice to cover the grandstands as well as five more for the playing area. In the VIP areas, too, SEA Leipzig relied on loudspeakers from Electro-Voice: six EVID 4.2 and two EVID 6.2 provide the requisite coverage. The system is driven by five Dynacord DSA 8805 power amplifiers: four for the stadium sound reinforcement and one for the VIP areas.
A P64 digital audio matrix manager from Dynacord provides the overall control. In all, the stadium technicians have 12kW of amplification at their disposal - enough to satisfy the demands of every occasion. A Dynacord CMS 1600 mixer and a number of audio playback devices round off the audio equipment in the stadium's sound control room.
(Jim Evans)
