The most recent company to deploy VQ in this type of environment is AV integrated solutions provider Impact Europe, as part of a significant upgrade to the Coop Arena in the northern Swedish city of Luleå.
Located just 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle, the 6000 capacity Coop Arena is a major sports and community facility for the city and surrounding area, and has undergone a major programme of building works to upgrade and enhance the venue - with new raised roof, new restaurant, pub, lodges and conference rooms in addition to a comprehensive overhaul of the AV systems.
A significant part of this upgrade was in specifying and installing a versatile and intelligible PA system around the main arena - used mainly for ice hockey matches and figure skating, but also for basketball and large scale music events. Impact Europe's Swedish offices turned to specialist audio distributors (and appointed distributor for Tannoy's professional products in Sweden) Standard Audio AB, who designed a new system for the main hall based around Tannoy's VQ Series.
Only 12 full range VQ enclosures were required to provide more than adequate coverage for the seating areas around the four sides of the arena. Four VQ 60 devices were flown (evenly spaced) along each long side, each supplemented with a down-firing VQ 85DF seamlessly mounted to the bottom of the VQ 60 cabinet. Meanwhile just a pair of VQ 100 devices, with their wider 100 degree beamwidth as opposed to the VQ 60's tighter controlled 60 degree conical dispersion, are sufficient to provide coverage at each of the 'ends' of the arena.
Delivering both performance and value was one of the key benefits behind their decision to specify VQ, as Standard Audio's Roger Friberg says: "Our first priority was to come up with a professional sound solution with integrated voice alarm - without adding significant costs. With this solution, we were able to deliver very high quality audio as an added bonus as well as a well-functioning VA system, at minimal expense."
(Jim Evans)
