The need to provide spectators with intelligible live commentary and information on the intermediate placing and times of the various teams and athletes, as well as music before, during, and after the competition, meant that the quality of the sound reinforcement was of crucial importance to the success of the event.
The organisers chose Nuremberg-based firm Barowski AG to do the job for the second year running. Providing even coverage for such a vast area was no mean feat, and required a considerable outlay in equipment: over 100 Dynacord and Electro-Voice enclosures and speaker systems were utilised, with Cobra-4 line-arrays from Dynacord also occupying a central role.
As well as at the start of the swimming leg, where six Cobra Tops, four Cobra Fars and two Cobra PWH Subs were deployed, and the finish area, where there were four Cobra Tops, two Cobra Fars and six Cobra PWH Subs, the compact system also lent its precision to the Bayern 3 party when the smoke cleared.
"The Cobra-4 system has an impressive sound, with plenty of pressure in the low frequency range as well as bite up top," says Barowski AG's MD Michael Barowski. "The sonic image that results is of very high resolution; furthermore, the Cobra-4 holds plenty of power in reserve. Even hard-bitten sound engineers like myself find it hard to remain objective in our appraisal of a system that good."
Providing sound reinforcement for spectators watching the cycling leg at the Solarer Berg also called for long throws and a high level of intelligibility. An Electro-Voice XLD system proved the solution here. "We had 11 enclosures facing uphill and three providing nearfield coverage for the spectators downtown," reports Barowski. To enhance the sonic image in the low frequency range, four XS212 subwoofers were integrated into the sound design.
(Jim Evans)
