The sounds of the Bird’s Nest, the nickname for China’s new avant-garde 100,000 seat Beijing National Stadium, will be heard like never before thanks to a new super sound system that can be controlled from anywhere in the venue.
The new stadium, designed by Herzog & De Meuron Architekten AG and China Architecture Design Institute, will host track and field events, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies, for next year’s Summer Olympic Games, beginning in August in Beijing.
Details of the audio technology being used in the new venue emerged at the AES show in New York City. Crown I-Tech amplifiers will provide sound.
The fiber-based audio system for the massive stadium takes up two full rooms with 30 racks of gear. Crown is providing the facility with 480 model I-T4000 amplifiers.
The digital console and the internal DSP of the Crown amplifiers will do all the processing in the system. The company said the internal DSP, which features 24-bit, 96KHz A/D and D/A converters, reduces DSP noise often associated with external systems. This results in quieter overall operation.
Because of the global importance of the Olympics, Crown said the front-panel lockout on each amplifier ensured that the tunings and presets were protected from unauthorized users. Remote monitoring and control allow complete system control from anywhere in the stadium.
The Crown I-Tech Series, with a 200V peak output for clean transient peaks, were designed for touring sound and installed applications. The amps are compatible with the IQ Network and TCP/IQTM networking. Digital audio and IQ control signals connect to the amp via single cable (in CobraNet-ready models). Push-button DSP presets simplify the setup for various loudspeaker arrays.
The power supply works anywhere in the world and offers power factor correction (PFC). The amps offer up to 8000W in a 2RU chassis.
For more information, visit http://www.crownaudio.com/.
