The Chizhovka Arena in Minsk is one of the largest sports facilities in Belarus. A multipurpose complex for ice hockey, sports, leisure and entertainment, it is also home ground of HC Yunost-Minsk – and a new sound install.

Designed by Marat Grodnikov, the arena resembles two drops of water flowing into each other and fits well into the landscape surrounding the Chizhovka Water Reservoir. It was built for the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Ice Hockey World Championship that took place in Minsk in May 2014. In addition to the tens of thousands of fans that travelled to see the event live, the IIHF’s flagship event was televised to 115 countries with television audience of around 1,000 million.

The main building, an ice hockey arena with multipurpose use for concerts, basketball and other events, seats 10,000. The second building consists of a small ice hockey training arena with 500 seats and a multipurpose sports hall with 740 seats, used for basketball, handball, gymnastics and other sports. This hall is also frequently used by television companies for filming TV shows. The two buildings are connected by a junction with conference and pressrooms, shops, restaurants and cafés.

An original proposal for the sound system was modified with a system design by engineers from Art Ramos Studio, Community Professional’s regional agent, and the project was awarded by tender, complying with the obligatory procedure for all governmental purchases.

‘Our proposal was chosen as it offered excellent value to the customer and met the requirements of the arena with a very modern approach,’ Anton Streltsov, Deputy Director of Art Ramos Studio, comments. The installation was handled by BelElectroMontazh, with supervision and support from Art Ramos Studio.

Throughout the complex the system uses 238 Community Distributed Design Series ceiling loudspeakers and 432 Distributed Design surface-mount loudspeakers, supplied in a combination of black and white finishes to best complement their locations. In addition, eight Community R.5HP three-way coaxial, 12-inch loudspeakers were used to cover the ice hockey pitch in the main arena.

All loudspeakers are part of the EVAC/fire alarm system, for which separate certification was made in Belarus. The loudspeaker lines and loudspeakers are all controlled by QSC Q-Sys, which monitors for loudspeaker, cable and short circuit faults.

Five separate Q-Sys systems are used to cover all areas of the complex, including the large arena seating, corridors, foyers, halls, cafés and restaurants, the small arena’s ice hockey area, the small arena’s sports hall, the small arena’s corridors, foyers and halls and the junction between the two arenas. The system includes a DiGiCo SD11 mixer, QSC amplifiers and beyerdynamic mics.

‘Our team was extremely satisfied with the system’s results,’ says Streltsov. ‘With Community we know we can always deliver outstanding sound quality and reliability. Our engineers were particularly impressed by the uniformity of the SPL we achieved on the ice hockey pitch using R.5HP speakers, which is really important as players move so fast under adjacent loudspeakers. It was the best result of any similar installation.’

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