-- Competition venues at the Nordic Skiing World Championships 2011 were equipped with loudspeakers and power amplifiers from Electro-Voice

 

-- The project was realized by the Norwegian firm Scandec Systemer AS

 

-- Over 300,000 visitors followed the progress of the competitions in the Oslo suburb, along with millions more on television

 

The Holmenkollen neighbourhood of Oslo, a venue with a rich sporting tradition, played host to the World Nordic Skiing Championships from February 24 to March 6, 2011, and event organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). According to the organizers, around 300,000 fans attended the various competitions, with millions more following the event on television. With more than 650 athletes from over 60 different countries competing and around 2,000 representatives of the media in Norway to cover the event, this was one of the largest sporting events on record. With medals disputed by both men and women in over twenty disciplines in the categories Ski Jumping, Cross-Country and Nordic Combined, and a lavish fringe programme of cultural events in and around the newly designed National Arena in Holmenkollen as well as in downtown Oslo, visitors had no excuse to be bored.

 

To enhance their appreciation of the competitions as they unfolded, the firm of Scandec Systemer AS was commissioned to install new sound reinforcement systems at the foot of both the large Holmenkollbakken ski-jump and its smaller companion, the Midtstubakken, as well as the Langrennsarenaen, from which the skiing events were observed. In the planning of the sound design, the company based in nearby Kolbotn worked closely with Norwegian television broadcaster NRK to ensure not only that the new system represented a convincing sound reinforcement solution for speech, jingles and music, but also that the loudspeakers did not obstruct lines of sight for the cameras.

 

In all, some 250 loudspeakers were distributed between the three competition venues. Among them were 56 ZX1i composite indoor/outdoor two-ways and weatherproof representatives of the EVF range in the shape of fifty-one EVF-PIB and the same number of EVF-1121S-PIB cabinets, each equipped with a 12-inch woofer. The criteria determining the choice of speakers were their frequency response, sound pressure levels, coverage patterns and robustness, the extraordinary imperviousness to adverse weather conditions of the Electro-Voice models selected proving one of their trump cards. Electro-Voice power amplifiers with a total output of 120,000 watts RMS were enlisted to drive the speakers, the task falling to thirty-four CPS 8.5 amps. The entire system was controlled by twelve digital signal processors. A fully digital and redundant solution was also found for the signal transmission via Ethernet using the CobraNet protocol.

 

The installed loudspeakers can be turned on and off individually using touch screens, so the system can be adapted, now that the world championships are over, to future events.