Coca Cola Arena

One of the region’s leading entertainment venues, Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena competes in a challenging market. To ensure the venue is truly ‘multi-purpose’, operator Legends Global wanted to harness the very latest audio technologies. What’s more, in this demanding field it’s also essential that an in-house sound system be rider-friendly.

They needed a solution that could be adapted as needed, rigged and de-rigged quickly and efficiently, to serve the wide range of events hosted by the arena. It should also help to address acoustical issues, reducing reflections from the glass-fronted hospitality suites and avoiding the need for costly acoustic treatments.

Malcolm Giles, the Arena’s Senior Director of Venue Management, chose the new system. He explains, “d&b is known for being one of the best audio systems globally; it has technology that is ahead of other brands and is allowing us to address our acoustic issues.”

The specification draws on the extraordinary full-bandwidth directivity of d&b’s GSL, KSL, XSL and SL-SUB products from the SL-Series, plus the new Compact Cardioid Line Array (CCL). The first product in d&b’s new CL-Series, CCL builds on the proven, ground-breaking low-frequency cardioid behaviour of SL-Series systems and introduces this all-important directivity control to a smaller line array system.

One of the world’s top live sound engineers, Marc Carolan (Muse) supported the system commissioning and tuning. He says, “Consistent coverage is critical. I’ve been a long-time d&b user, and I know I can rely on their systems to deliver coverage as promised. Tonality is equally important: GSL in particular feels like a musical instrument – it has a very natural, musical quality that allows the art to really shine.”

He adds, ”Of course, many venues and stadiums are far from acoustically perfect, so the challenge is to deliver music directly to the audience without overloading the room with unnecessary energy – and d&b provides fantastic tools to model and design systems so we can deploy energy thoughtfully and efficiently.”

This controlled performance included the ability to reduce the venue’s problematic reflections from the glass-fronted suites.

Of the new CCL, Carolan adds, “Despite its compact size, the CCL still delivers cardioid control down to the lowest frequencies, which is remarkable. It slots in perfectly with the larger SL-Series cabinets, meaning we can provide effective cardioid solutions for any space, maintaining intelligibility and clarity from front to back.”

The completed system meets all of the venue’s requirements: powerful, controlled, flexible, efficient and trusted, it provides a consistent, high quality audio experience throughout the venue.

The key requirements for the venue were quality, flexibility and rider-friendliness. The SL-Series solution from d&b audiotechnik is well suited to meet all three.

The SL-Series’ cardioid nature means that, as we move off to the side and around to the rear of the speaker, every frequency becomes markedly quieter, demonstrating that the sound is being controlled to an exceptional degree – aimed where needed, with minimal off-axis spill.

This brings a number of benefits. Because there is so much less sound energy coming from the back of the PA, it means there is far less unwanted energy entering the mics on stage, so far less coloration of the mix and a much cleaner-sounding stage. It also means far less sound is bouncing from the venue’s rear wall, reducing reflection and interference, thereby further improving the clarity of the sound in the room.

Another advantage in a situation where several large hangs of speakers are adjacent to each other, is that those arrays fight less with each other, so sound is not overlapping between them, but handing cleanly from one speaker to the other. There is less negative interference between the hangs – which again means more clarity.

And across the SL-Series – including the largest model GSL, the medium KSL and the smaller XSL – there is consistent tonality and the same directivity behaviours in every hang. Therefore, it is possible to combine the products and have them work very well together as a precisely-targeted, coherent system.

And so too for the new CCL system – the even smaller line array most recently introduced by d&b. This also achieves the full bandwidth directivity exhibited by the SL-Series, so is able to control the sound all the way down to the lowest frequencies.

This installation has successfully addressed and notably improved the performance and adaptability of one of the Middle East’s foremost live entertainment venues. In doing so, it has demonstrated the current state-of-the-art, with the very latest loudspeaker technologies. It stands as an example to venue operators the world over.

The Coca-Cola Arena opened as recently as 2019, but even in that time d&b audiotechnik has been busy proving the benefits of its new SL-Series in applications across the globe, as well as growing the system with smaller models.

That capability was developed even further with the introduction of the CCL, while the consistent tonality and directivity behaviours across the whole product range means they complement each other perfectly in tailoring complex systems.

As the venue settled into its programme of events, it soon became clear to its operators that its original specified sound system did not fully meet the demands of a busy, modern, multi-purpose venue.

The search began for a solution that could be expanded and adapted as needed, rigged and de-rigged quickly and efficiently, to serve the wide range of events hosted by the arena. It also had to address the venue’s acoustical issues – for example, reducing reflections from the glass-fronted hospitality suites and avoiding the need for costly acoustic treatments.

What d&b audiotechnik’s class-leading technology has provided is a new benchmark in full-bandwidth sound directionality. The cardioid characteristics of the SL-Series and CCL enable a new level of sound quality and flexibility, one which applies across the range of show styles and formats hosted by a modern multi-purpose arena.

“At d&b we work with the world’s top tours, venues, and artists,” says Brad Maiden, General Manager of d&b’s Middle East office in Dubai, “and it’s been a pleasure to help create this benchmark for entertainment in the Middle East. The installation of our flagship SL-Series further elevates Coca-Cola Arena on the global stage, as a venue known for technical excellence and world-class quality, something we’re thrilled to be part of.”