036 REPORT
The Handball Arena built for London 2012 Olympic Games
Ascot Racecourse
noise. You have to have no single point of failure - if one element of the system fails, at least half of the system would continue to work in all area. It has to report any faults so if something goes wrong you can take action such as temporarily putting extra marshals in areas where the loudspeakers have failed. Finally it has to be easy to use - the system might be used in a very stressful situation by relatively unskilled personnel. The very nature of a stadium means that it will have complex evacuation requirements. Some standards are written in such a way to allow for fl exibility in how things are done; every building is different. This however also leaves them very open to interpretation; put several voice alarm experts in a room together and you will get several different opinions. My thoughts on this are that whenever possible you should adhere to the standards, unless doing so would compromise safety. Remember that compliance to a standard does not relinquish you of any legal responsibilities. Fundamentally it is the responsibility of owner of the building, sup- ported by the audio team to ensure that the system is safe. Local authorities sign these systems off and they are more interested in public safety and knowing that all issues have been considered than slavish adherence to standards that weren’t written with stadia in mind. There is only one audio standard in the world written with particular reference to stadia - BS7827 - sound systems for sports grounds.
DISABILITY In most countries there is legislation to ensure that people with disabilities are looked after. For audio this means augmenting the audio for people who are hard of hearing and providing an audio description for the partially sighted. Whilst the induction loops can be used in small areas such as hospitality boxes or restaurants, they are not practical for use in the main bowl. Very large induction loops are diffi cult to maintain and if you only cover part of the seating then you are being prejudicial by making the disabled sit in one place. Whilst this is appropriate for practical reasons for those with wheelchairs, it doesn’t demonstrate an attempt to offer an equal experience for others. A better solution is to use a radio based solution. Small receivers can be distributed and can carry commentary into earpieces or neck worn induction loops. This has a number of advantages. The hard of hearing can have one channel and just receive the normal commentary whilst the partially sighted could listen to a radio channel with a more descriptive commentary. Depending on the sport there is no reason why a single audio channel can’t be used if the commentators are trained to provide commentary that works for all groups. This approach was taken in some
Twickenham Stadium
Olympic venues. A fi nal benefi t of the radio system is that the same receivers can be sold to the public with an enhanced commentary or even the referee microphone. This can be a good bit of extra revenue and has sponsorship opportunities.
SYSTEM DESIGN
It is common for the client to employ an audio consultant to design the stadium. They will give an indication of budget, design the audio system, set out the perfor- mance parameters and help the client choose suitable contractors. In other cases the contractor may also act as the consultant and there is nothing wrong with this approach if they are competent.
In Europe, it is common for many consultants only to be interested in the elec- tro-acoustic design - the type and location of loudspeakers. Often they leave the contractor to deal with the amplifi cation and networking requirements - even though these elements are just as important and are possibly more risky if they are not correct. This is due to the fact that many consultants have an acoustics background. Another pitfall is that many consultants will want to do stadium work but few are ca- pable of actually delivering what is required. Most stadium sound designs are based on how a football stadium works, even if that is not what the stadium being used for. The problem with this is that football is probably the easiest sport to design for. Their work often involves spending a disproportionate amount of time working coverage of spectators and not enough thought into the complexities of the sport in question, detailed operational requirements and broadcast issues. When selecting a consultant it is important that they have knowledge of the sport they are designing too. Many international federations including FIFA set out its audio requirements in some form or another and these need to be adhered to. In many cases they are not. In a stadium the audio is a very small part of the total contract and is often pack- aged up with IT, CCTV or fi re systems. Its lowly contractual status means that audio is not given the importance it deserves. This often results in consultants being put under extreme pressure to reduce costs and this can have a signifi cant impact on the quality of the end result and if the system is not compliant with safety standards you can’t even open your building.
CONTROL AND CONNECTIONS TO OTHER SYSTEMS For safety it is a requirement to have a main and back-up paging location so the audio system can be operated in an emergency. In addition there will need to be a commentary location, probably a plug in point for a DJ and often the ability to con- duct pitch side interviews. The system will connect to the fi re alarm system so fi re alerts can trigger the audio system. Whilst the audio system may use its own private IT network so the critical audio path is resilient, it is common to connect the audio system to the building IT network for control purposes. This gives more fl exibility on where you can locate some control and monitoring equipment. Also tapping into the building WiFi network lets you control the system from a tablet, great when commis- sioning or for adjustments during a game by the duty technician.
SUMMARY
Next time you go and see some sport, pay a bit more attention to the sound system. Just look upwards in the bowl and think of the trouble it took to hang many tons of loudspeakers in such a diffi cult location. Meanwhile the system is probably running music in a restaurant, announcements in the concourses and presentations in a few boxes - all whilst conforming to some rigorous safety standards. It’s a complex job full of risks and compromises.
www.rhconsulting.eu www.mondodr.com
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