The speakers of d&b boost sound at Berlin's Horst Korber sports center

The central hall of the Horst Korber sports center in Berlin required a sound system that would allow the acoustics to be controlled separately for each of the areas that comprise it.. The company in charge of the project, Neuenhagen, opted to install three d speaker clusters&b that can work together or individually.

Next to the Berlin Olympic Stadium, in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district, There is a sports center named after the German politician and senator Horst Korber, in tribute to his work in favor of the family, youth and sports. This sports complex, which was built at the end of the decade of the 80, It is the state center of excellence for the practice of handball, hockey, volleyball and athletics.

In the heart of this sports center, property of the Berlin State Athletic Association, there is a large room 88 x 48 meters and a height of 14 meters that offers a great view and whose daylight is filtered through several rows of skylights. The room has many folding stands, with enough seating for up to 3.500 spectators, and has very large curtains to separate the different tracks or fields when events are held in parallel.

In 2012, A new sound system was installed in the sports center, a project that was commissioned to the electroacoustic specialists of the Neuenhagen company. The challenge was to control the acoustics separately for each of the three large sections of the room according to the divisions of the space..

With the new installation, The central room has three clusters of loudspeakers. d&b audiotechnik. Each of them can work individually or together and, regardless of the configuration needed, everything sounds precisely as intended.

Prevention and safety

To meet risk prevention and safety requirements, All clusters are fixed to the ceiling of the room using supports manufactured especially for this installation.. To cover the folding stands, arrangements were installed, each consisting of three two-way T10 speakers. These arrays cover the audience area in line array mode and provide 110° horizontal dispersion across the entire range..

To reinforce the low frequency range, Each speaker column contains an 18A subwoofer with an 18” long excursion. Two MAX12s have been placed downwards to cover the concert and sports areas, the right choice for its coaxial design. The two speaker columns at each end of the room have been equipped with three T10 arrays. Instead, to cover the narrowest sides of the sports center, There are only two columns to ensure that they reach the spectators in the stands..

All three columns are always controlled as part of the same global unit, with the aim of maintaining uniform acoustics in the area to be covered. The experienced technicians from Neuenhagen took responsibility for the calibration.

The sound system for evacuation and emergencies that had previously been installed in the room no longer served that purpose.. To maintain the necessary safety levels for spectators attending sporting events, The sound systems have been renewed in accordance with the most recent technological developments and current health and safety regulations..

The d sound system&b that has been installed is sufficiently penetrating in emergencies for the alarm to be heard in all key areas. It is also an adequate system to issue evacuation instructions with the direct sound level needed in these situations..

D6 Amplifiers

The D6 amplifiers that power the speakers have been placed separately, in a control room. Neuenhagen technicians have arranged for the amplifiers to go with each speaker individually to ensure that there is sufficient coverage in each stand even if a particular amplifier does not work properly..

The sound solution also includes transport carts for mobile devices, which the technicians in the room affectionately call a phonovolume. These carts can be quickly connected using connectors distributed throughout the room. Music can be played from a CD player, a laptop or USB stick and always plays in mono. It also has voice input via wireless systems or a wired microphone.

The system includes a control panel with potentiometers for the external audio processor. This allows technicians to set the sound to any level in individual sections of the room or in all areas, as desired.

“The previous system already had 20 years and the sound quality was not exactly what the public expects today. If you listened carefully, You could even hear that hissing noise and, sometimes, if someone took out their cell phone, interference could be heard. The new system with d speakers&b audiotechnik has taken the sound of the Horst Korber sports center to a whole new level. Anywhere you sit, you can hear and understand absolutely every word. All we have to do is sit back and control the system, and that without putting it at full capacity by any means”, explica Reiner Becker, that works with the technical systems of the sports center.