Viola Park

Viola Park, a new state-of-the-art sports centre and home to ACF Fiorentina football club, recently integrated a new comprehensive audio solution from K-array. Nestled amidst the rolling Florentine hills, Viola Park is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of professional footballers at what is thought to be one of the best training facilities in the country.

With 26 hectares of sprawling landscape, Viola Park is the largest sports centre in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. The facilities at the site include 12 regulation pitches and stadiums, gyms, accommodation and medical, media and wellness centres. To complement its world-class amenities, Viola Park sought out a top-of-the-line audio system to enhance the experience for players, spectators and visitors.

Systems integrator, Professional Show partnered with Viola Park to deliver an unparalleled AV experience. Following a demo at the Artemio Franchi Stadium, the former home of the ACF Fiorentina team, Professional Show was selected as the technology partner for the project due to the impressive quality and performance of the products shown, especially regarding the size-performance ratio of the K-array solution. The integrators also used products from Samsung, Panasonic, ProLights, Avolites and LightShark for the visual elements of the project.

In the 3000-seat-capacity Curva Fiesole stadium, Professional Show opted for a KGEAR solution comprising a total of 21 GH12 loudspeakers and seven GS18 subwoofers in each bleacher, rigged discreetly to harmonise with the stadium’s architecture whilst providing high SPL for matches and events.

Leveraging the DSP capabilities of KGEAR GA46 amplifiers, the integrator designed an unconventional loudspeaker reinforcement system that matched the aesthetics of the stadium and guaranteed an even coverage of the stands with moderately high SPL. Professional Show also developed a quasi-horizontal step array of GH12 loudspeakers to meet the architectural constraints.

For each of the seven loudspeaker clusters, the three KGEAR GH12 in-step array configurations are evenly distributed under the ceiling so that the meticulous positioning compensates for the up-tilt angle of the seat coverings. Each GH12 is angled downward with defined tilting angles to maximise coverage across the listening area. Furthermore, each loudspeaker cluster is complemented by a GS18 subwoofer to complete the system frequency response.

In the events pavilion, the audio equipment consists of 8 KP102l Python speakers and 2 main KS3PI Thunder subwoofers set into the woodwork in the hall interior. There are also 8 KU212 Rumble subwoofers hidden in the interstices of the walls that preserve the standard of beauty that the architectural design calls for without sacrificing the extremely high standard of sound quality that K-Array products provide.

Aside from the main football stadiums, the project also comprised audio installations at various spaces across the site. In the Media Centre, home to a futuristic press room and digital museum, Professional Show and K-array collaborated to design a system that would meet the architect’s request for an invisible and modular solution and ensure clarity of speech during live interviews. Four Kobra loudspeakers, four Rumble subwoofers and a pair of two linear metres of Anakonda seamlessly blend high-quality audio technology with aesthetics.

Even the bars within Viola Park, named Maglia Viola and Il Giglio, boast bespoke audio systems, featuring K-array’s ultra-flat Vyper loudspeakers and Rumble subwoofers, seamlessly integrated through a QSC Audio control system.

The lighting system inside the media centre was designed by Professional Show with the support of ProLights and comprises 16 motor-driven lights (8 spotlights and 8 wash lights managed by an Avolites light mixer) and 20 additional remotely managed LEDs Spotlights that direct light onto the stage. In the TV studio 48 Prolights illumination bodies are managed by a LightShark LS-Core station.

The media centre functions as a digital museum for Viola Park, with several monitors showing images recounting the history of Fiorentina. The images are displayed across an 88 sq-metre Samsung LED wall with a pixel pitch of 2.5mm, which showcases the pictures at an extremely high resolution. The centre also features PTZ professional 4K, 50p AW-UE150 cameras and two lateral wall-boxes where visiting TV and radio operators can connect and acquire the various signals produced here.

The new  multimedia TV studio  is an innovative content development area. It is the technological heart of the sport centre, and guarantees dynamic distribution to all broadcast and social platforms thanks to the fully digital NDI, SDI and Dante technologies.

The filming technology is based on Panasonic PTX 4K products. Integrated LED wall, monitors and virtual sets open the recording studio to all manner of productions. The virtual part is handled by a Zero Density system. The set design of the studio, created by Professional Show under the artistic direction of set designer Patrizia Bocconi, has two different environments. On one side there is a 15 m-long area for the Virtual Set and on the other, there is the studio which can support 3 or 4 scenes for various transmissions.

Moreover, the walls of the studio have been built with sound absorbing materials and the floor is made of black-lacquered MDF wood inlaid with over 80m of RGBW strip LED. 60m of RGBW strip LEDs have been installed along the perimeters of the set, and, in addition, there is a column covered by Samsung LEDs and a 15 sq metre Samsung screen with a pixel pitch of 2.5mm. There is also another studio set consisting of 5 55” Samsung monitors to be used for face-face interviews.

Professional Show ran into no challenges during the project. It was a seamless integration of state-of-the-art audio-visual technology, which resulted in an enhanced overall experience for visitors to Viola Park. “The work carried out at Viola Park has further sealed and strengthened the partnership between Professional Show and K-array. K-array has proved to be a winning solution for Fiorentina and yet another great project where we were able to collaborate and work together with the K-array team to deliver the highest-quality solution.” - Giovanni Beoni, Project Manager and Sales Manager at Professional Show.

Viola Park was a huge project for Professional Show which comprised of several separate audio-visual installations that had to adhere to different briefs.

The project showcased the brilliance and versatility of K-array’s portfolio of products.

The system respects Viola Park’s architecture, blending seamlessly with its intricate aesthetics.

The work carried out at Viola Park has further sealed and strengthened the partnership between Professional Show and K-array.

The new audio-visual system allows Viola Park to continue to raise the bar for sports facility standards.