In 2018, the Argentine Soccer Association (AFA-Asociación de Fútbol Argentino) and Government of Santiago presented the plans for the new provincial sports stadium and quickly began the building process. By July of the following year, the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades was confirmed as one of the venues that would host the Conmebol Copa América (America Championship) – although this was subsequently postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The work progressed, and in October 2020 a unique sound installation was completed by Buenos Aires-based Equaphon Sistemas de Sonido, comprising equipment from STS Sound Touring Systems, Powersoft and Xilica.
Conceived as a circular stadium with covered grandstands, the Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades (the Unique Mother of Cities Stadium) has a capacity for 28,000 seated spectators, and includes VIP areas, press booths, spaces for restaurants and covered parking with a capacity for 400 cars. In addition, the stadium was designed with a main access plaza, a sports museum, and remarkably comfortable entrances. Interms of its sports credentials, the design complies with, ConMeBol (The South American Football Confederation), as well as FIFA and AFA, standards.
The Estadio Unico Madre de Ciudades in Santiago del Estero is the first stadium in Argenina to include the design and installation of sound systems right from the building stage. Most, if not all, of the country’s venues were equipped with sound systems well after their inaugurations, and frequently with only basic implementations.
Entrusted with design and provision of the sound system, Equaphon Sistemas de Sonido is an Argentine company that has been representing the world’s leading professional audio brands for 45 years, and is also the manufacturer of STS Touring Series Systems, which widely used in the entertainment industry, both in Argentina and abroad.
The Estadio Unico stadium sound system features announcement, emergency and paging functions. In addition, it is divided into more than ten zones, offering the possibility of directing different audio programmes to each zone, precisely accommodating the needs of each individual event. The system can be controlled through touchpanels at three different locations within the stadium.
The main exterior systems covering the grandstands were designed around acoustic optimisation and simulations derived using Ease Focus software, and comprises eight arrays of 12 STS Linea V15i boxes mounted on custom-designed steel frames to provide the exact splay between boxes, as well as their absolute spacing. These arrangements have been permanently suspended around the outer ring of the roof structure, 30m above the ground. Checked once installation was over, the difference between prediction and implementation turned out in the order of 1°.
The V15i box is a bi-amplifiable design paired with Powersoft’s Quattrocanali 4804 DSP+D for the installation. Each amplifier can power six V15i cabinets and, as has a Dante input, allowing two amplifiers to be placed in a rack close to the array, shortening the length of wiring while allowing maintenance and inspection without the need to lift the system. Powersoft’s ArmoníaPlus software ensured correct impedance settings and allows remote monitoring of the cabinets and arrays, assisting maintenance.
The remaining areas were covered, according to their needs, by two-way cabinets or coaxial ceiling speakers on 100V lines, totalling approximately 500 units.
A total of 19 Powersoft Quattrocanali 4804 DSP+D, 2 Powersoft Mezzo 322 AD and two Powersoft Mezzo 604 A power amplifiers serve the STS line array systems. A Xilica Solaro FR1 provides the main Dante matrix, with two Xilica Solaro XIO-8 using Dante protocol, using the stadium’s fibre-optic ring. The system is highly flexible and scalable. Beyerdynamic gooseneck and stand microphones were chosen to ensure speech intelligibility for announcements.
The sound system at the Estadio Único is the result of months of development and decades of experience on the part of Equaphon invested in technological breakthroughs in products and components employed. ‘Equaphon Sistemas de Sonido is proud of having been selected to furnish the Estadio Unico de Santiago del Estero with a sound system that in its design and implementation reaches the standards of the most modern stadium sound systems around the world,’ says Alberto Escriña from Equaphon’s Engineering Department.
‘Spectators will have a 360° experience because this is a circular stadium, like a theatre, with visibility from all sides. It has a very beautiful court, spectacular lights, covering all requirements. It also has 2,300 lumen, the zenith of Conmebol’s aspirations, and an excellent sound,’ commented Gonzalo Belloso, Conmebol’s Deputy Secretary General and Director of Development, after his approval visit.
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