The stadium has been home to a Yamaha LS9-16 since it opened, used for announcements and background music, and club chairman Pete Winkelman is well aware of Yamaha being located nearby. So when the Doubletree Hotel was opened within the stadium, the company was the natural choice for the sound system installed in its Ballroom.
The 50m x 22m room can be used in a variety of ways, as a single space or divided in up to three separate rooms by the use of moveable acoustic screens. Winkelman approached Yamaha with a tough brief - to provide a system that was extremely versatile, could be controlled by novice users and would provide high quality audio for speech purposes, but could still deliver 'balls to the wall' levels when required.
Designed by Scott Fraser, Yamaha Commercial Audio (UK) installation manager, the system comprises eight IF2208, four IF2115/64 and four IS1218 loudspeakers, powered by four PC3301n, three XM4180, two PC6501n and two T5n power amplifiers. It is controlled by a DME64N digital mixing engine, via six AD8HR mic pres and four DA824 interfaces. Two ICP1 intelligent control panels are provided, programmed to make scene changes very fast and straightforward for hotel staff.
It's the biggest ballroom outside London, the system had to be able to seamlessly cover more than 1100sq.m, says Scott. However, on match days it is divided into three, with two of the rooms used for dining, the Man of the Match presentation and other events, so the same speakers had to be able to cope with that as well. Then there is a wide range of other functions it has to accommodate.
The answer was to mount the loudspeakers around the perimeter of the ballroom on supporting columns, which would also satisfactorily cover the area when it is divided up. Scott worked closely with the Powerdrive Drum company, based in Leighton Buzzard, which designed and supplied custom loudspeaker mounting brackets.
Powerdrive were a great help, he says. The job couldn't have gone ahead without getting brackets to mount the speakers on the columns. They designed and delivered exactly what we needed.
Another physical challenge was in the Ballroom's pre-function area, where a restricted height of 2.3 metres and a glass, pitchside wall meant four additional IF2205 speakers had to be very carefully positioned. We obviously didn't want the sound to reflect directly off the glass partition and getting the stereo spread right was a challenge in a long, thin room, says Scott. The speakers also had to be discreet, so positioning of them had to be very carefully done.
(Jim Evans)
