Following a competitive tender process against a specification by Steve Jones, Venue Technology expert for the Acoustics Division of Capital Symonds, the contact was awarded to Bristol-based systems integration company Sounds Commercial. UK cable specialist VDC Trading supplied much of the Low Smoke Zero Halogen, steel wire armoured and fire tough cable for the project.
Damian Orritt, installation contracts manager of Sounds Commercials says: "We use VDC for our cabling requirements because it manufactures and stocks the breadth of products that we need, particularly for complex installations. In this case it was important that we specified rugged and reliable cable that couldn't be tampered with - and that it complied with the various health and safety regulations that apply to large scale public venues like football stadia."
Bristol City's new sound system incorporates two BSS Soundweb London networking systems that control the nine Crown CTS2000 amplifiers with USP3/CN. The system is running at low impedance and so the amplifiers are split over two racks in two locations - one in the Williams Stand and the other in the Dolman Stand - and are connected by a zero loss fibre network.
"The old system was underpowered and also very dated in terms of equipment, range and reliability. There was no fault monitoring and quite simply was not up to the club's expectations for the forthcoming season," adds Orritt.
Sounds Commercial has also installed a new DJ booth in the Dolman Stand and has supplied the club with a section of AKG in-ear monitors and radio microphones.
BCFC's new sound system takes in three of the club's four stands and was fully operational by August 2007, in time for the club's first home game in the Championship against QPR. Redevelopment of the Wedlock stand is expected to be announced in the near future and so the system components will be extended to cover both the internal and external areas of this new development.
(Jim Evans)
