The newly 15,000-seat Darius and Girėnas Stadium is the first football infrastructure in Lithuania to fully meet UEFA requirements. As well as being a sports stadium, it can accommodate 30,000 as a live music venue, and is currently the largest closed concert venue in the country.
Audiotonas was subcontracted as part of the build to provide RCF Audio sound reinforcement and EVAC sound systems, as well as flag-rising mechanisms and large LED video screens.
The main sound system has been designed for high reliability, with complete redundancy and a secure digital audio network. Dante and AVB digital signal protocols have been selected, ensuring simple integration of the in-house sound system for concerts and other large events.
The stadium’s sound system is also available for primary or auxiliary sound on most occasions. The venue includes five server rooms with amplifiers separated by equal distances. These technical rooms are connected by a quadruple optical fibre ring of digital audio links. It ensures systems stability – if any connection is interrupted, the system will still operate without any audible interruption.
In a stadium-type space, the interacting sound waves of individual acoustic systems must reach the listener simultaneously, thus improving overall speech intelligibility – STI (Speech Transmission Index). Audiotonas engineers have programmed two different delay line scenarios that the system operator can change with the touch of a button. A total of 96kW feeds the 32 RCF P 5228-L speakers in clusters of four modules each, installed evenly along the entire perimeter of the stadium. RCF P 1108-T speakers in additional 78 delayed sound lines provide coverage for the lower ring of the stands. Four units of extremely high-power speaker systems, RCF HL Series, are installed for the playing field coverage. RCF Ayra studio monitors serve the sound operator at the console position.
The frequency characteristics of all speaker systems were measured under real conditions using specialised measuring microphones and software. The characteristics of the sound have been adjusted to eliminate unwanted resonant frequencies due to the stadium’s acoustic environment. This allowed, not only to obtain the best possible sound quality, but to achieve the same tonal balance between various loudspeaker types in use.
The Audiotonas team measured the sound pressures on the pitch, at the stands, the upper and lower rings, providing consistent coverage and avoiding excessive sound pressure to the audience – while maintaining intelligibility. The sound system of the Darius and Girėnas Stadium is one of the most powerful, complex, and large-scale systems so far installed in Lithuania.
In addition to the entertainment sound system, the stadium is equipped with a separate fire alarm and evacuation system, divided into 29 sound zones. This system also provides background music and commercial messages to the common areas. The system meets the strict standards of EN54 requirements, ensuring clear and comprehensible audibility of messages with fire-resistant cabinets and cables. The EVAC system comprises more than 500 RCF loudspeakers.
