GEO FOCUS BRAZIL
Football World Cup Provides Stadium Audio Boost
Two of the stadiums that will host matches during the 2014 World Cup have received acoustic upgrades in preparation for the event. Walters-Storyk Design Group
upgraded the 62,000-seat Mineirão Stadium (pictured) in Belo Horizonte, giving it much needed acoustical treatments and a comprehensive sound system that serves the playing field, audience, and internal spaces such as VIP rooms, access areas, and offices – a total space of 300,000sqm. “Our primary facility management
concerns focused on the level of sound comfort and intelligibility in relation to the RT60 reverberation time required to meet stipulated FIFA STI mandates,” said Renato Cipriano, partner and general manager at WSDG’s Brazilian office. “Our sophisticated simulation
programs enabled us to assess and ‘auralise’ the entire complex. “We identified extensive sound
reflections throughout the arena and concluded that acoustical absorption be installed at the inner ring of the audience sector to achieve the required STI values. “Speaker positioning was defined for the internal and external areas, and for numerous zoning maps, which can now be individually controlled for increased flexibility and security purposes. All specific audio and video systems, and control room speaker selections, were designed to meet FIFA requirements.” In Rio de Janeiro, the Maracanã
Stadium, which will also host the opening and closing ceremonies of the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, underwent major renovations for three months before hosting the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup final.
The stadium’s sound system now
includes an Allen & Heath GLD-80 mixer at the heart of an EV sound system. The GLD-80 is fitted with a Dante network card and controls audio distribution around the entire stadium through fibre optic cables. Augusto Bergamim, sound manager
and system programmer at the Maracanã, said: “The main reason we chose GLD was because of Allen & Heath’s fantastic sound quality, reliability, and ease of use.”
www.allen-heath.com www.wsdg.com
Critical Acclaim for Sound Designer Neighbouring Sounds follows the lives of
residents in a single city block in the coastal town of Recife, Brazil. After a run of petty crime, a private security firm is brought in to protect the residents, but their presence unleashes the fears, anxieties, and resentments of a divided society. “The main idea was that sound does not
Brazilian sound designer, screenwriter, and director, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s feature debut, Neighbouring Sounds (Portuguese: O Som ao Redor), has received a high level of acclaim for not only its visual impact, but also its haunting sound design and original score. The film’s audio team was made up of nine members, including Filho and Paraguayan filmmaker Pablo Lamar, who worked on Filho’s earlier short films. The team spent almost two years completing the film’s sound. Commenting on his use of sound to enhance and drive the plot of the movie, Filho said: “The very organic nature of life in such an environment seems to have so many different layers of sound at any time of day. They are not only cues to people living their lives in private, but also information about loneliness, joy, neurosis, happiness or fear, no matter how noisy a place can be, or how quiet.”
www.audiomedia.com
respect social barriers,” commented Filho in an interview with the BFI. “In a room we can control the lights by using the shades, but if there’s a truck outside playing Led Zeppelin or some construction work we can’t get rid of it, it will come in. “We didn’t want to use a traditional music
score. I always find it interesting as a viewer to watch scenes unfold without instructions on how they should be dealt with. “The absence of music generates
something almost like a deal between me and the audience. You’re not going to get a soundtrack, but I can give you something like a carpet of sound. It will entertain your ears but you won’t really notice that it’s music with noise. But the noises are carefully laid out.” Neighbouring Sounds won a number of
awards during last year’s festival circuit, including Best Sound at the 2012 Festival de Gramado and was picked by The New York Times critic A. O. Scott as one of the world’s top 10 movies made in 2012.
August 2013 25
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