The multi-purpose stadium in Al-Rayyan, Qatar, home to the Al-Rayyan and Al-Kharitiyath sports clubs, and the near-identical Al-Gharafa stadium, seat around 25,000 apiece. Both are largely open-air apart from VIP grandstands, and in a country where summertime temperatures can hit 40°C/104°F, the term "bleacher" means exactly what it says.
They are the latest in a series of high profile Renkus-Heinz beam steering installations in the Middle East, two other recent prestigious projects being the Qatar Royal Mosque and the Dubai Swim Stadium.
Consultant Fredrik Setterberg of Swedish audio specialists Soliflex was called in the fine-tune the design and, he reports, "It was a very fast job from start to finish - about a month from the order being received. We and Al-Tamas equipped two stadiums with 16 IC Live arrays and two sub-woofers in each stadium, each connected via RHAON (Renkus-Heinz Audio Operations Network).
"We originally planned to have the loudspeakers on the edge of the pitch shooting upwards towards the audience, but the QOC asked for a re-design, partly because of visibility issues. The main challenge was to massively improve intelligibility across the seating areas without interfering with sightlines - and without a roof to hang speakers from."
(Jim Evans)
