Pride Park Stadium, home of English Championship football club Derby County, is set to offer visitors an enhanced experience after completing a major project in partnership with audio and AV consultancy RH Consulting.
The stadium had been seeking a replacement for its existing infrastructure and approached RH Consulting for advice. This then to a tender process that involved five loudspeaker brands, with d&b audiotechnik winning the order.
Steve Jones of d&b audiotechnik Education and Application Support said the firm was tasked with providing a system that “would be capable of fully tantalising the senses”.
Jones added: “The club is very ambitious about what it can achieve and is keen to think outside the box in every area. In terms of the new sound system it quickly became clear that the club wanted a system not only to deliver announcements and background music effectively, they were also looking for that more subjective feeling of, ‘this is a great sound system that will engage people and make them want to have a party’.”
With this in mind, Jones reverted to the then-new point source cabinet from the V-Series, the Vi7P. Electroacoustic modelling meant only three cabinets per cluster were required to meet the PAVA specification and also allowed for the inclusion of a Vi-SUB to extend the performance to low frequencies.
The system has already been put to good use during the 2017-18 season and Jones said the feedback from fans and officials has been positive.
“I spent a lot of time after the first match chatting to fans and everyone I spoke to remarked upon the improved audibility and clarity of the speech,” Jones said. “It’s evident that the system has set the venue up very nicely for the long term future, both in terms of its core football commitments and potential entertainment events.”
Stuart Fisher, chief technical officer at Derby County, added: “We are extremely happy with the d&b solution, as well as the support they have provided during the project – and continue to provide now. It gives us the best acoustic solution in our league and arguably in the UK too, having achieved superb voice measurements. The quality of the system is simply outstanding.”
