Meyer Sound Rides to the Rescue at Qatar Equestrian Federation

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"When we first turned on the Meyer Sound system, the client immediately noticed that the sound was extremely intelligible and powerful, and that it was now suitable for quality music playback." - Hadi Arzouni General Manager, AV-TECH

For centuries the mastery of horsemanship has been a source of pride across the Arabian Peninsula, and nowhere is the region's passionate celebration of riding skills more evident than at the newly renovated arenas of the Qatar Equestrian Federation, where an insistence on quality prompted the addition of Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers.

The premier venue in the complex is the main outdoor arena, where the 120 meter diameter circular show grounds are flanked on one side by a covered grandstand with seating for 1,500 spectators. To project uniform, high-fidelity sound into the seating area, AV-TECH installed eight clusters of two M1D line array loudspeakers each along the front wall. The VIP area is served by a pair of the compact UPM-1P loudspeakers, while the vast expanse of the arena grounds—about 120 meters in diameter—is covered by three groundstacked arrays of three M2D line array loudspeakers each.

"The old 100 volt distributed system had very harsh sound quality and poor intelligibility," says Hadi Arzouni, general manager of AV-TECH, the Doha, Qatar-based designer and installer of the new systems. "When we first turned on the Meyer Sound system, the client immediately noticed that the sound was extremely intelligible and powerful, and that it was now suitable for quality music playback."

The audio system also comprises a Midas Venice 160 mixing console, four Sennheiser EW-145 wireless microphones, and a playback rack with Tascam cassette and CD players and a 360 Systems digital instant replay system. System drive and processing is provided by a Meyer Sound Galileo loudspeaker management system.

The balance of the loudspeaker complement is installed in the indoor arena, where 32 UPJ-1P VariO compact loudspeakers are suspended from the roof in yoked pairs over the grandstand seating areas. Mixing, playback, and system drive capabilities here are essentially the same as those available for the outdoor arena system.

"The client was initially reluctant to spend more money for an upgrade since the old system had been in place for only a few years," remarks Arzouni. "But when they heard the result, they realized it would have been much better to install the Meyer Sound system in the first place; knowing that would have saved them the cost of replacing an inferior system so soon."

AV-TECH is a supplier and installer of audio, video and performance lighting systems for a broad range of clients in the Gulf region. AV-TECH is known for its expertise in media technology for sporting facilities, and was a principal supplier of AV systems for the 15th Asian games, hosted by Doha in 2006.

December, 2008

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