Olympisch Stadion

Although Antwerp’s Olympisch Stadion was built as the main location of 1920’s Summer Olympics, it remains one of the city’s landmarks today, thanks to its status as the home base for local football team, K.Beerschot V.A. When the stadium’s management came to a point where they could no longer continue with their outdated sound system, they called on audio experts PFL and FACE PROJECTS, to assist.

The team chose 3 x Powersoft’s Quattrocanali 8804 DSP + Dante to drive the 25 x Martin Audio CDD15-WR and 17 x CDD10-WR (which are used as delay). This is controlled by a Dynacord Matrix made up of an MXE5 mix engine and a pair of TPC-1 touch panel controllers, as well as Van Damme LSZH Speaker Cables.

The outdated audio system required a complete overhaul – the stadium’s 42-unit rack – filled with 20-year-old amplifiers – was replaced by just three Quattrocanali 8804 DSP + Dante amplifier platforms.

The system would also need to transmit both speech and energising music, with volume and fidelity key aspects in setting the right ambiance, allowing spectators and football team to perform at their best. By deploying Powersoft’s ArmoníaPlus software, 12 separate zones of the stadium (with a total power of 20,000 Watts) was able to be controlled with just three units.

Size and costing also play a part with such a large scale install. With the Quattrocanali 8804, you have a lot of power, on-board DSP, and Dante, all in compact format; not only regarding size of the unit, but the necessary current and cooling too.

Powersoft’s proprietary ArmoníaPlus software played a pivotal role in the stadiums audio overhaul. The bespoke software has been used to tune the entire system.

ArmoníaPlus has all the parameters you need to adjust and secure the system as much as is necessary. In this project, it’s a real feat of engineering to be able to replace a complete 42-unit rack filled with 20-year-old amplifiers with just three units and still have the 12 zones in the stadium with a total power of 20,000 Watts.