Home to Anderlecht FC, the 24,000-capacity Brussels stadium, used solely for football, needed to upgrade its 25-year-old PA/VA system. Following evaluation of three possible solutions, long time Anderlecht solution supplier Prosonix, together with Nexo's Belgian distributor's Pascal Deneef, proposed a Nexo compact, two-way Geo S12-ST system. The Geo S12-ST, a specialist stadium version of the popular Geo S12, fitted the stadium's requirement for long-throw line array cabinets perfectly. Another major reason for choosing the Nexo option was the success of the Geo S12-ST system installed in France's Stade de Valenciennes, a similar venue in size and design.
Nexo's Paul Massiani, together with Pascal Deneef, used the company's proprietary NS-1 software to design the 82-cabinet system; 19 clusters of 4x Geo S12-ST plus three clusters of 2x GEOS 12-ST from the concrete roof, using GEO fixed installation brackets together with custom-made brackets which allow the clusters to be turned.
One challenge facing Nexo was the inherent difficulty of containing noise levels within the stadium due to age and its metal and concrete construction. The S12-ST - a high-output, long throw cabinet - features a tight dispersion pattern, keeping as much noise as possible inside the stadium. The system also produces enhanced speech intelligibility; up to 20m from the S12-ST clusters to the lowest seats, and 15m to the rear seats in the tribunes; in simulations, sound levels reached 110dB.
The system is powered by six NXAMP4x4 powered TDControllers, which support the Dante network protocol. Use of Dante allowed the acoustic designers to specify BSS Soundweb for system control. Operated via a touchscreen in the control room, Soundweb was selected for its processing, presets and zoning functionality.
It provides full flexibility for managing the stadium's 22 audio zones, which can be used in a variety of combinations. This allows messaging to be tightly targeted to each specific zone, in fact a special request from the police. Additionally, in the event of a system problem, Soundweb will automatically contact the administrator who can log on remotely to assess the situation.
The network runs on an all-new fibre optic cable infrastructure installed by Prosonix and sub-contractor SPIE, providing full redundancy and fire-resistance for up to an hour. It can also accommodate future addition of sub bass loudspeakers and further extensions of the system.
(Jim Evans)
