German soccer team the Offenbach Kickers are renowned for the loyalty of fans who fans who have supported the club through its many ups and downs. Now the Kickers, based near Frankfurt, have a new home – a futuristic, €25m stadium sponsored by the local Sparda Bank in their native German state of Hesse.

Improvements to the outdated, underpowered audio playback systems at the Kickers’ home ground were high on the list of fans’ requirements before reconstruction began, and the new Sparda Bank Stadium has not disappointed. A Q-Sys platform controls all the audio in the stadium from the main operations centre, including the associated PA/VA system.

QSC equipment is also used to power the loudspeakers hanging in the stadium eaves. QSC PowerLight amps, in service for many years at the Kickers’ old stadium, have been re-commissioned for use in the new facility, following extensive performance testing at the headquarters of the QSC distributor in Germany, Shure Distribution. A QSC CX302 power amplifier was additionally purchased to power new fill-in loudspeakers at the outlying reaches of the stadium.

Cable runs in a large stadium can be up to several hundred meters – as in this case, where each spectator stand has its own control centre. The centre in the main stand also acts as the audio control centre for the whole ground, and houses the Q-Sys Core 1000 processor. This is linked to the other control rooms via a fibre-optic cable network which allows full integration with the Q-Sys I/O Frames in the individual stand control centres. These in turn act as the audio I/O boxes for the inputs and outputs in each stand, converting the analogue signals to digital and back as required.

Most of the design work on the Q-Sys platform at the stadium was carried out according to the club’s requirements using the Q-Sys Designer software before installation took place on site. The completed design was loaded into the Core 1000 unit when the units were installed at the stadium, and final adjustments were then made to accommodate the practical realities of the installation.

All the audio systems in the ground can now be adjusted and controlled from a wireless-connected laptop if required.

‘I’ve never worked with an audio networking platform that was so easy to integrate as Q-Sys,’ says Alexander Hülshorst, head of the stadium reconstruction project at design and construction company, Beckhoff Technik.

With four weatherproof, covered spectator stands in the style of recently constructed English stadia, capacity for more than 20,000 spectators, ten VIP boxes, a special reception area for business club members and various fashionable retail outlets, the Sparda Bank Stadium has been completed in time for the club’s 111^th anniversary.

More: http://qsc.com