As one of the best football teams in the world Gaplasa's José Maria Penalba rationalized the club deserved nothing less than the best in sound quality too. "However, it was not only a question of offering them top quality equipment but also the best engineering team and service," he emphasized.
After listening carefully to the club's needs, the D&M Professional Spanish distributors were able to meet all system requirements from the company's catalogue. The background music is now delivered from a Marantz Professional CC 4300P 5-disc CD changer, designed for commercial use. Also installed is a Marantz Professional CDR510 Live Event CD Recorder. Via its two independent drives, this functions both as an MP3 file playback device, as well as being used to make recordings of messages (including the names of the players, events openings and closing speeches). The CDR510 delivers ambient sound to all parts of the stadium.
Transmission of the pre-recorded messages is now in the hands of the Marantz PMD325 professional CD-R/RW/MP3 player, controlled via RS232C (one of the features which adds versatility to the unit). Finally, the ST4000P tuner is used as a control and monitor unit for match transmissions by AM and FM commercial broadcasting radio stations. Supplied with rackmount kit, the ST4000P can be used as background music source or channel monitor in cable distribution stations, the simultaneous RDS and frequency display providing all information at the same time.
Comments Mr. Penalba, "All these units are in continuous use and collectively make the stadium's entire sound source." He adds that all units are installed in a purpose-built 19" rack, which is housed in the central control room (which also contains all the audio-visual and data processing systems).
The new sound system was officially used for the first time in a classic end-of-season La Liga match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. "Everybody was astonished by the improved sound quality, since when we have been congratulated by everyone - from the Real Madrid manager to the sound technicians who, at the end of the day, are the ones who have to work with it."
So now when legendary names such as Zidane, Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Beckham, Owen, Raul and Casillas are broadcast on match days, the 70,000 fans packed into the Bernabeu will be listening to the team announcement via an all-D&M Professional sound system.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
