Wittelsbacher Platz in Munich was a case in point. Up to 2,200 spectators at a time watched all the matches played between 16 June and 11 July, enjoying high definition images on a 37sq.m LED screen - equivalent in size to two soccer goals - placed in front of the Siemens headquarters. The company created its own 'Soccer City' to celebrate the competition, and to make sure the party atmosphere stayed strong, commissioned DJs to serve up a musical cocktail to suit all palates.
The sound was delivered by an XLD line-array system from Electro-Voice, comprising 24 array elements and a battery of EV CP4000S power amps. Sound designer Michael Prinke commented, "Off the bat, I can't think of any other system that is this small, compact and light that sounds this good. The XLD is also remarkable for its enormous efficiency."
Whilst the proximity of housing estates and the often deafening drone of the vuvuzelas that accompanied every match might have been expected to pose problems for Prinke and his crew, he reports that "neither posed any problem whatsoever during the event". Prior to the first broadcast, the company conducted simulations to determine how to achieve a homogenous sound. The elephantine trumpeting of the plastic horns "represented a challenge," he admitted, "but in the end even this didn't represent a difficulty."
In Burghausen, Upper Bavaria, up to 6000 fans at a time watched the matches. Sound production at this location was handled by Stubenberg-based rental company MSE-Tontechnik. To ensure the match commentary was intelligible, the MSE team opted once again for sound reinforcement equipment from Electro-Voice. The installation included flown Xi-1152A enclosures and Xi-2181A subwoofers. Amplification was provided by CP3000S amps supported by Dx38 controllers.
"This set-up really proved its value," reported Johannes Schilling, MSE-Tontechnik's chief sound engineer. "Even though we chose not to deploy our EV XLD system on this occasion, we still had plenty of headroom. The sound performance was - as always - awesome."
(Jim Evans)
