A good audio system in a sports scenario will not only allow attendees to be well informed of what happens during the competition, it will also favor security in case of any inconvenience.
By: Juan Alberto Tamayo
In Colombia we have had in recent years a large number of international sporting events in which we have in 2010 with the South American Games held in the city of Medellín, in these games the remodeling and / or construction of sports venues in Medellín and nearby cities was carried out.
In 2011 the U20 Football World Cup was held, cataloged as the second most important tournament in world football after the world tournament of seniors, and in which eight football stadiums were remodeled in Colombia, and recently the World Games were held in the city of Santiago de Cali, where a large number of sports venues were also remodeled.
In South America we have in 2014 the Senior Football World Cup and in 2016 the Olympic Games, both tournaments will be held in Brazil, and without counting the large number of sporting events that will take place in the different countries of the Continent.
Until 2010, as a loyal sports lover, he criticized sound systems in sports venues such as coliseums, stadiums, courts, among others. And I never understood what they were saying through the speaker system. As a loyal football fan, when I went to the stadium and the team of which I am a fan made a change, I had to wait for the commentator of the radio station to say the names because the information was never clear.
And I say that until 2010, because from this year there has been a transformation of audio systems in Colombia, due to the developments made for a few sports scenarios in the South American Games of 2010 and that occurred in a large percentage of stadiums for the U-20 Soccer World Cup of 2011. Of the world games in Cali I do not know the audio systems but I hope they are with advanced technology.
Audio on the courts
What does a sports scenario require for the audio system to be adequate? I will only talk about the audio system, since in audio visual systems you can touch on the subject of digital advertising, screens, lighting among many others.
For some years I have heard the controversy and I have also been part of one or another conversation in which it is said that it is better to have many low power speakers distributed by the area of stands and interior areas of the sports stage (which I will call stadium) or have speakers of low impedance of much greater power but in a smaller quantity.
Based on experience, I can conclude that in a stadium you should have both options. In the area of stands should have speakers of greater power, but few units, I recommend that they are with impedance coupler or line transformer. In some solutions I have seen 600 watt speakers that can work in line with 200 volts.
And for the areas of corridors, dressing rooms, press offices, among others, use speakers of lower power, between 15 watts or 30 watts. The most important thing before choosing what type of speaker is to be used, is to perform a three-dimensional modeling to find the best option for the stadium.
Stadium zoning is the critical point in any solution, and it is due to the safety factor of the stadium. Organizations such as FIFA recommend that at least the stands be sectorized. For the U-20 World Cup they requested at least sectorization in the four grandstands (western, eastern, north and south), but they clarified that if it could be divided into more numbers of zones the audio system was more efficient.
As I mentioned, for sports organizations audio systems are critical when it comes to unscheduled safety events such as evacuations, where if they can direct staff by sector and perform these organized procedures, they can preserve more human lives. The design of the audio system must be linked to the evacuation plan of the sports scenario.
Also for safety
But the division into sectors of the audio system can lead to very high expenses in the wiring and that is why the designer must support the audio system in IP solutions. It does not mean that the transmission to each speaker is through the Ethernet network, but that the designer must make an audio network taking advantage of low latency technologies such as CobraNet, Dante, Omneo among others and locate concentrators at strategic points.
In the vast majority of soccer stadiums in Colombia, audio systems were used to power the entire stadium. In scenarios with capacities of less than 20 thousand people, only one central audio point can be used.
Easy administration is critical to this type of solution, as most of the staff operating the audio have little knowledge of the subject. So the programmer of the system should make a friendly interface and take the recommendations of the last article, which delved a little deeper on this topic.
Saving money on connectors and content can make the playback of audio through the system not the best, in some scenarios I have seen that the system administrator uses connection cables to connect a computer, using a plug cable 3.5 mm to RCA of low cost and playing a YouTube video, keep in mind that a good audio system will reproduce a bad recording very well, if the recording has noises, these will be heard perfectly.
Avoid distractions
People who attend the stadium are going to watch a game, whatever the modality, do not place speakers that can interrupt the viewer's line of sight. Please, the space that exists between the court and the grandstand must remain free of objects in which we have speakers, security cameras, screens, poles among others.
Sounding the stage court is usually not an option and is due to several factors. The first of these is that the player is focused on his game and having a direct sound source that is deconcentrating him can have negative effects. How about designing your team's stadium and scoring a goal because of a message. And the second factor is due to the transmission of sound waves by rebound, if there is any emergency evacuation a remnant of the wave will be reflected towards the court and the players will hear it without doing it directly.
The design of sports scenarios is much I can talk about and many experiences that we can collect. As a good designer, I like to know the opinion of the readers and to be able to rescue and learn the best that you offer us. That is why I invite you to write to us and give us the tips that were possibly not discussed in this article.
