Dynacord and Electro-Voice relay UEFA Euro 2012

Last month’s UEFA Euro 2012 competition saw Dynacord and Electro-Voice provide sound reinforcement at stadiums in Kiev and Lviv, as well as at football parties across Germany to help fans get behind the national team.

For each of Germany’s Euro 2012 matches, around 12,000 fans gathered at the Königsufer on the banks of the Elbe, Dresden, to watch the action on giant screens, with Bosch Communications Systems providing sound reinforcement. “There were two major hurdles here to contend with,” reported Dirk Schiemenz, the managing director of the Saxon rental company. “One was the size of the area to be covered and the other the nature of the signal, the TV commentary, itself, in which the level of background noise is generally extremely high and has to be controlled carefully.”

Led by Schiemenz, Dresden-based company Sound Light Event subsequently opted for Dynacord Cobra 2 systems to supply near and side fill, two XLVC line arrays from Electro-Voice with XLE 181 elements flown from the stage roof, and PWH and V17 bass cabinets from Dynacord. Amplification was delivered by P3000RL and TG7 power amplifiers from Electro-Voice as well as LX2200 power amplifiers from Dynacord. As stage monitors, SXA360 powered loudspeakers were used, while digital signal processing was provided by a DSP 244, with the entire system controlled and supervised using IRIS-Net software.

“We put our faith in Electro-Voice and Dynacord years ago and it’s a decision we have never once regretted,” stated Schiemenz. “The positive feedback from the event organizers further vindicated our choice.”

During the final rounds of this year’s tournament in Poland and Ukraine, sound reinforcement was handled by Renchen-based company Badensound, who took care of two events: one attended by 10,000 fans in Achern and a second in Offenburg, where the capacity was 7,000. The greatest challenge in each case, said Badensound’s Johannes Moeck, was to control the level of sound emissions: “In Offenburg, the event was held in the middle of the city, and in Achern, on the edge of a housing estate. Our job was to ensure sound pressure levels were high enough in the areas where the fans had gathered to maximise their enjoyment without escaping sound infringing local byelaws. We did this by installing line-arrays on each side of the giant screens and adding decentralised delay lines we could switch on or off depending upon the number of fans present. The subwoofers were configured to create cardioid bass arrays with their levels meticulously controlled in order to achieve a directional coverage pattern even in the low frequency range. In this way, we were able to ensure that virtually no disturbing low frequency sound spilled into nearby residential areas.”

For these events, Badensound deployed Dynacord V17, VM15, D12-3 and CXM15 cabinets powered by Dynacord H5000 amps with integrated RCM26 modules. “In my opinion, they’re the world’s best power amplifiers,” stated Moeck. “They offer you all the remote functionality you could wish for, they’re reliable and, with the added benefit of the FIR settings provided, deliver top quality sound.” In the FOH position, a CMS 1600-3 mixer was used.

A smaller gathering of 2,7000 fans in Burghausen saw four Electro-Voice XI1152A/64F loudspeakers flanked by four Electro-Voice Xsubs powered by MSE TG7 power amplifiers from Electro-Voice.

Meanwhile, between terminals one and two at Munich Airport, sound systems from Dynacord and Electro-Voice relayed the commentary as hundreds of travellers at a time gathered in front of the giant screens to keep an eye on the latest Euro 2012 action. Magic Event- und Medientechnik of Olching were responsible for this production and relied on an XLVC line array from Electro-Voice, comprising eight XLD281 elements per side, Xsubs, and both TG5 and TG7 power amplifiers.

In order to avoid the risk of bad weather spoiling the festivities, the authorities in Straubing moved the giant screens indoors to a local trade fair centre, which has a capacity of 3,000 visitors. Despite the challenging acoustics in many parts of the venue, Michael Wittenzellner, the managing director of StereoMike Veranstaltungstechnik, was able to achieve optimum intelligibility by utilising two Dynacord Cobra Tops and Dynacord Cobra Far elements placed on either side of the screen and three delay lines composed of CXM15 cabinets.

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