Tommex Żebrowscy has completed the design and installation of the audio systems for Zatoka Sportu (Sports Bay), the new water sports facility at the Academic Sports and Teaching Center of the Technical University of Łódź.
One of the leading institutions for higher education in Poland, University of Łódź was established in 1945, and today its 12 faculties provide programmes in 90 fields of study, with 165 specialisations. Around 10,000 students complete their programmes at the University every year.
At the centre of Zatoka Sportu is the first 50m indoor swimming pool to be built in Łódź. The main pool actually consists of a 50m pool with a conjoined 25m pool, with a full-length depth of 2.5m. A custom floating platform can divide the pool to any size, allowing for a full-sized water polo pool. Additionally, the smaller pool has an adjustable bottom which, depending on the requirements, can create any depth from 0-to 5m.
‘With high humidity and difficult acoustics, we chose Community R Series loudspeakers,’ says Tommex Commercial Director, Marcin Zimny. ‘Their extreme all-weather ability can handle the humidity long-term and their accurate coverage patterns enabled us to design the system with well-controlled sound to the areas needed, while substantially avoiding reflective surfaces.’
Tommex designed the main pool area system using EN 54-24 certified loudspeakers. Twenty-three Community R2-94Z-EN are used for the 1,700 capacity spectator grandstand, with a further five R1-66Z-EN covering the pool itself.
The system’s control room houses a Dynacord CMS 1000-3 mixer and the Community DSPEC226 digital loudspeaker processor. Tommex chose g+m electronics’ BO-CD amplifiers to power the loudspeakers and a combination of wired and wireless Sennheiser microphone systems to provide operational flexibility. The system incorporates a Bosch LBB 1968/00 feedback suppressor and Genelec loudspeakers for control room monitoring.
Tommex also provided a portable underwater sound system, which can be deployed for classes and events such as aqua-fitness and synchronized swimming, and the public address throughout the corridors, halls, toilets, lockers and technical rooms of the venue, to allow for efficient communications and evacuation in case of emergency.
‘Like any modern sports sound system, it has to deliver clear speech for communication and commentary, and entertainment quality for music,’ Zimny concludes. ‘Having installed Community R Series in numerous indoor and outdoor venues, we know we can count on them to deliver both audio performance and long-term reliability.’
