The Singapore Sports Hub, overlooking the Kallang Basin, sets a high standard in sports and entertainment complex, home to the National stadium, a multi-purpose indoor arena, an aquatic center and watersports center.
The versatile complex has been designed to cater to both national level and international events and will be the main venue when Singapore hosts the South East Asian (SEA) Games in 2015 as well as the country’s annual National Day Parade.
System intergration firm Electronics & Engineering of Singapore designed and installed multiple sound reinforcement systems throughout the various venues within Sports Hub, each with loudspeakers from Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW).
The 55,000-capacity National Stadium has both a retractable roof and retractable seating capability making it the only stadium in the world able to host a multitude of events such as rugby, cricket, football, athletics, concerts, family entertainment shows, national and community events.
The goal for the sound reinforcement system at the National Stadium was to provide intelligibility, high output and pattern control through the venue.
In order to blanket the facility in sound, a combination of EAW QX Series loudspeakers – weather-protected (WP) and custom painted to blend into the ceiling – were installed under the roof line. The three-way, point source design is headed by 35 QX544-WP, QX594-WP, QX596-WP, QX5641-WP and QX566-WP loudspeakers.
“The EAW QX loudspeaker is able to achieve constant directivity all the way from 80 Hz to 20,000 Hz,” states Ronald Goh, managing director of Electronics & Engineering. “For throw and sound quality I have not heard a loudspeaker like it. Because it is a coaxial loudspeaker your high and mid is on the same plane and now I have bass on the same plane also. It sounds amazing.”
The VIP sections were covered by three MQX installed on each side of area. The MQX is a custom tri-axial three-way system which provides maximum output with optimal directivity from a relatively compact enclosure. Fundamentally it has the components from two QX564 built into a custom designed cabinet that uses a 2-cell MF/HF section driven by two of the QX co-axial devices all symmetrically surrounded by eight 12-inch woofers.
Low end is reinforced by 12 clusters – each comprised of four EAW SB528z-WP subwoofers – suspended from the ceiling in a downward firing cardioid array delivering extended low frequency information down onto the listening area but not up into the stadium roof.
The two-level OCBC multi-purpose indoor arena consists of six halls that are designed to be scalable in size and to cater to an array of indoor sports events for both National Sports Associations as well as the general public. A distributed audio system comprised of 46 EAW MK2396i and 8 MK2399i loudspeakers takes care of the audio needs for halls one and two on level one.
The 3,000-seat aquatic center hosts a variety of community, regional and international competitions, with E&E again turning to EAW MK Series in a distributed, point source sound reinforcement solution for the room. Thirty-four two-way MK 5399 loudspeakers were installed in the catwalk to cover the expansive area. Another 22 EAW LS 432 column loudspeakers were mounted pool-side to service the corridor and side seating areas to the pool.
Last but not least, the Sports Hub includes a water sports center located along the Kallang Basin that offers canoe and kayak courses along with a 500-meter Regatta course. Announcements and playback to the vast area are made via a three EAW QX loudspeakers installed on top of the water sports center tower.
All of the EAW sound reinforcement systems are powered by a combination of Powersoft Duecanali, K10 and K2 amplifiers. Digital audio is enabled throughout Sports Hub via 80 Symetrix Symnet Edge frames located on a redundant Dante network that runs throughout the complex.
