Bose outdoor sound gets the nod
Somewhere between Harrismith and Clarens off a tarred road, is a hill in Witsieshoek surrounded by mountains and overlooking magnificent views; this is the location of the Charles Mopeli Football Stadium, home to the Free State Stars (formerly Qwa Qwa Stars). Our Gauteng partners, Audiotech, were awarded the contract to design, supply, install and commission the sound system for the Charles Mopeli Football Stadium.
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The budget was very tight' says Steve Bricknell, Managing Director of Audiotech. 'We had to design a system that would meet the tender specifications and be affordable. The obvious solution was using stacked pairs of Bose 802's. Not only are they rated for full environmental endurance, but they also have the SPL and full frequency response required for an outdoor stadium. We would have preferred to have a couple more stacked 802 pairs to minimise the one or two lower SPL spots but overall you would be hard pressed to hear a better sounding stadium system!'
Another unique feature of the system is the use of a third party DSP processor to provide the EQ curves required for the loudspeakers. Bose have now published their EQ curves as a set of DSP parameters, eliminating the need to use the Bose digital controller . This translates to significant cost saving in larger systems, that already use a DSP control system. Audiotech however discovered that not all DSP systems are equal, and the competitor's DSP system turned out to have the wrong filter characteristics to do the job. EMS supplied a BiAmp Audia Solo that achieved the necessary at virtually the same price !
C and V Consulting Engineers - Harrismith were the consulting engineers involved in writing the technical specification and in appointing the successful tenderer. Says Shane Wessels of C and V: 'Everything happened at breakneck speed! The Free State Stars got promoted to the Premier League which meant an urgent upgrade of the stadium including the sound system. We had 4 weeks to issue the tender, award the contract and commission the system. There were many challenges along the way including sourcing and erecting poles for the loudspeakers as, unfortunately, there are no roofs from which to suspend the loudspeakers'. Shane continues : ' Audiotech really came to the party and met the incredibly tight timelines. As for the Bose/BiAmp system, it more than met our expectations. We have a very satisfied customer!'
'It was incredibly tight for EMS Africa too', Dennis Feldman of EMS Africa says: 'Even though the Bose 802 is typically in stock at EMS, we did not have the quantities required at such short notice. So we contacted all the major Bose offices internationally who I might add responded magnificently. The quantity required were in a Bose warehouse in Tolleson, Arizona USA. We then had problems booking freight space on a plane as the cargo space on all planes leaving Los Angeles was already overbooked. But we made it on time. Our Mark Hull joined Stephen Bricknell at the Stadium for final commissioning'.
Speaker Complement: 48 Bose 802III loudspeakers, 40 configured as twenty Stacked Pairs on the lower level, and 8 singles on poles on the upper level
