The Sinsheim, Dresden, Frankfurt, and Berlin stadiums all boast installations that meet the highest modern standards in terms of both entertainment value, and safety; and whilst the Sinsheim venue, with a capacity of 25,000, is no coliseum, the Berlin, Dresden, and Frankfurt stadiums are among Europe's biggest and best.
A mammoth four-year renovation back in 2004 restored Berlin's historic Olympic Stadium to its former glory, adding a sound system that is regarded as a reference worldwide. The stadium's 19 line arrays, each comprising nine Electro-Voice XLC 127+ enclosures, even satisfy the demands of concert sound. The use of remote-control amps (43 EV P3000RL units and 38 EV P1200RL) also became a blueprint applied by stadium planners to modern sports arenas of all kinds.
In the Glücksgas Stadium, Dresden boasts one of the most modern and attractive sporting venues in Germany. Opened in September 2009 after two years of building work, it has a capacity of over 32,000 spectators, with space in the VIP area for 1,200 guests. Hesse & Partner of Rostock and Meißner of Warnemünde were responsible for the design and installation of the sound system. It combines pro audio solutions from Electro-Voice and ELA systems from Dynacord.
Three years in the construction and costing 126m euro, the 48,000-seater Commerzbank Arena, Frankfurt, was opened in 2005. A single-source solution for pro sound and ELA was chosen here too, with EVI Audio again being the preferred source. On the pro sound side, the installation features 24 P3000RL amplifiers, 84 FRX+PI series enclosures and a number of N8000 network controllers (all from Electro-Voice). The ELA system includes 31 DPA 4120 and 74 DPA 4140 power amplifiers and six DPM 4000 digital audio matrices (all from Dynacord).
(Jim Evans|)
