Since the entire facility had to be pitched at world-class level, the audio reinforcement system also had to meet the standard for international competitions and a CobraNet digital backbone was proposed, with BSS Audio providing the DSP network.
To meet the specification for the PA system, based around a JBL PD main system, ACE (the Harman Pro distributors for China and Hong Kong) proposed a complete Harman Pro signal chain; this comprises five BSS Audio Soundweb London BLU-80 devices as the primary processing system, with two BSS Audio FCS-966 two-channel 30-band Constant Q graphic equalisers for peripheral processing.
A Soundcraft Vi6 digital console is located in the control room at poolside. The outputs of the Vi6 are sent directly to the inputs of the BLU-80 8x8 located in the control room racks. This device is also used for routing the signals to the other four BLU-80 8x8 devices located in the amplifier room.
The control room device additionally handles the loudspeaker processing for the underwater sound reinforcement and provides transmission gain in the main PA system above the pool, while maintaining uniform SPL and frequency response across the entire gallery.
All the speaker management is assigned to the four BLU-80 devices, while the routing and processing for all the warm-up pools and practice areas are also under the control of the Soundweb London system.
Crown CTs amplifiers are featured throughout the venue and all of them are installed with IQ PiP Lite modules to enable full monitoring of the amplifiers.
(Jim Evans)
