Sweden - The Borås Arena is home to top-tier Swedish football club Elfsborg and Division 1 South team Norrby. The 14,500-capacity stadium was opened in 2005 and, last year, a new sound system was designed and installed by local musical instrument and professional sound specialists Musiklagret, who are also a sponsor at the arena.
With speech articulation and uniform coverage at the top of the performance criteria, Musiklagret proposed a Nexo system using 40 x P15s and 20 x P10s from the French manufacturer’s industry-standard P+ Series point-source range.
“Nexo P+ Series was selected for its frequency range, the resolution of the HF, and the facility to change horns to achieve optimum coverage,” reports Niklas Frick from Musiklagret’s Rental and Installation division.
P+ cabinets are installed in pairs at 90-degree angles around the stadium, with one focused on the pitch and the other on the crowd.
“Our first impression of the new Nexo system in Borås Arena was that you could suddenly hear exactly what the commentator was saying,” comments Christian Mohr from the stadium’s technical team.
“Previously, with the almost 20-year-old system, it was sometimes difficult to understand speech, especially when there was a lot of background noise.
“The music also sounds much better, which contributes to a better experience for the audience.
“Over the years with the old system, we have sometimes received requests where some wanted us to increase the volume while others wanted us to lower it. Since we put the Nexo system into use, we have not received any such requests. We believe that when the sound sounds good, you are less inclined to complain about the volume.”
Amplification and processing for the system come from a network of 12 Dante-equipped Nexo NXAMP4X2Mk2 powered TD Controllers.
“At the same time as we changed speakers and amplifiers, we also changed all analogue signals to Dante and installed a processor from Q-SYS,” continues Christian.
“The old existing long analogue signal cables from the processor to the technical rooms in each stand limited how we could section up the arena. Now when we're running Dante, we can mute and unmute each stand separately. Some of the stands are divided into several sections with individual controls. We can then regulate levels in different places depending on crowd density.”
Part of the service offered for stadium and other installations and events, the Nexo Engineering Support Team were available to assist throughout the process, including modelling the performance of the system using NS-1 configuration software.
“The support we received from Nexo was excellent,” comments Frick in conclusion, “all the way from initial design proposals to finished installation.”
