The first venue completed by Dancefloor was the Winter Stadium, the 6,000+ seat capacity home of the Orli Znojmo hockey club. The Winter Stadium is also used for international matches, hockey camps, figure skating training sessions and competitions, skating courses and public skating, but had long suffered with poor sound levels and intelligibility, lacking the ability to inform and involve visi-tors and produce an exciting atmosphere for events.
Libor Klemenc, Dancefloor's managing director, explained the choice of loudspeakers, "For high intelligibility and overall sound quality we chose Community R.5 12-inch, two-way loudspeakers. Sixteen R.5s were required and we used a combination of 60 x 60 degree and 90 x 40 degree versions to give us perfect coverage. The R.5 is both compact and discreet. Engineered for all-weather applications, it is also ideal for the environmental conditions of an ice venue."
Klemenc continued, "With an MC2 Audio Ti1048 integrated audio management system providing delay and equalization, and the audio dynamics maintained by four MC2 Audio T1500 amplifiers, we achieved excellent speech intelligibility, which was a primary requirement of the venue."
Multipurpose use of the venue was also an important factor which has been elegantly addressed in Dancefloor's system design. Via the menu on the processor, the operator can simply choose from pre-set modes according to the event; hockey match, public skating, training, social event and so on. The system can additionally be controlled from two separate locations.
Prime events and hockey games are operated from the main control booth using a Dateq Onyx mixer, whilst public skating, skating courses and other social events can be controlled from the rink side penalty timekeeper box using a Cortex MIX-R1U mixer.
The system also provides control from both locations simultaneously as, for example, may be required during a hockey game where the main booth is used by commentators and the penalty box for reporting penalties. Additionally, a Shure SLX24E/SM58-P handheld wireless system enables live commentary to be made from any location in the stadium.
With the substantial improvement in audio quality at the Winter Stadium, the Znojmo authorities commissioned Dancefloor to provide an equally high performance system for the town's nearby Sports Hall. The Znojmo Sports Hall is a complex used mainly for indoor sports including basketball, floorball, futsal, handball and rhythmic gymnastics clubs.
"With the Winter Stadium system so highly rated by its operators and visitors alike, we used the same basic formula for the Sports Hall, but designed it to precisely meet the use, layout and acoustics of the venue," said Klemenc.
"The new systems have transformed both venues," said Klemenc. "The audio is loud and clear throughout, so that operators and commentators can focus on content and spectators can enjoy much greater involvement."
(Jim Evans)
