Audio Technology recently outfitted the Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex with state-of-the-art Harman Professional audio solutions to provide high-quality sound reinforcement for the 2021 World Men’s Handball Championship.
An extension of Cairo International Stadium, the Cairo Stadium Indoor Halls Complex is a multi-use facility featuring four Olympic-standard indoor sports arenas.
Over two weeks in January 2021, the venue hosted the 2021 World Men’s Handball Championship in its 16,900-capacity Main Hall and 1,620-seat Hall 2.
Although functional and visually impressive, the venue wasn’t designed with acoustic performance in mind, possessing a long reverberation time which made providing intelligible sound reinforcement challenging.
Additionally, the venue’s structural design limits the amount of weight that can be hung from the ceiling, creating the need for a lightweight yet high-quality audio solution.
Adding yet another challenge, the International Handball Federation (IHF) enforces a maximum sound pressure level (SPL) limit, as well as a mandatory minimum standard of speech intelligibility.
To overcome the venue’s limitations and meet the IHF’s stringent audio standards, event organisers turned to Audio Technology, a Cairo-based full-service provider of professional audio equipment.
Audio Technology designed and implemented a full Harman Professional audio solution across both halls featuring JBL loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers, BSS signal processors and Soundcraft mixing consoles.
“When we started the project, we were concerned that the hall would need to be treated because of a high reverberation time,” said Mario Abadeer, presales pro systems head, audio technology.
“We suggested some materials that would improve this, but when we installed the speakers, what they heard was so impressive, they decided they didn’t need any sound treatment after all.”
In the main hall, Audio Technology Installed JBL VTX V20 three-way line array speakers on a circular truss hanging from the centre of the room. With dual 10-inch neodymium differential drive woofers in each 88-pound cabinet, the VTX V20 delivers low-frequency response down to 60 Hz, eliminating the need for heavy subwoofers.
In Hall 2, Audio Technology hung four clusters of compact JBL VTX A8 line array speakers with VTX B18 subwoofers from a ceiling-mounted circular truss similar to the Main Hall. The combination of lightweight dual 8-inch loudspeakers and 18-inch subwoofers provided the ideal balance of sound quality and power while staying within safe weight limits.