21/08/2017 » Axiom Covers All at Thailand's Tinsulanonda Stadium
Tinsulanonda Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Songkhla, Thailand, named after former prime minister General Prem Tinsulanonda who was born in Songkhla in 1920. The stadium is currently used for football, and is the home ground of the Songkhla United Football Club, currently riding high in Thai League 2.
The stadium has recently been the subject of a new permanently installed Axiom sound system, providing higher levels of intelligibility than was previously possible in the 45,00 capacity facility, the largest stadium in Songkhla and the second largest in Thailand, and was supplied and installed by Proel's Thai distributor VAN Intertrade Co., Ltd. The audio project was designed and jointly managed by Axiom's in-house design team of international sales engineer Daniele Massaccesi, together with VAN Intertrade's sound designer Sirit Ruensri, and sound engineer, chief technician and sales manager Pawarich Udomsit.
This year the Songkhla stadium will be one of the host sites of the National Games, so creating the necessity for a professional quality sound system that could be installed and prepared well in advance of the Games which are normally held in December. The organisers approached VAN Intertrade with whom they had a long standing relationship based on previous projects, who recommended the Axiom brand as offering a wide range of products that would suit the acoustical, environmental, and asthetic requirements of the project.
The stadium is open on three sides, with only 10,000 of the seats being covered in a small single-tiered stand located along one touchline, while the rest of the stadium is a continuous curving tier. Following an EASE simulation the initial design located the main PA system at the front corners of this covered stand providing coverage for all of the non-covered areas.
Four hangs each of six AX2010P passive dual 10-inch two-way line array elements totalling 24 units are flown on KPTAX2012 flybars from the corners of the roof in pairs at a 60° splay angle to cover the opposite open stand as well as the side stand South and the side stand North, a maximum distance of some 80 metres. Eight ED12P passive two-way speakers are hung under the lip of the grandstand roof in a horizontal orientation as downfills, and 30 ED25P compact two-way fill speakers are distributed for near field coverage over the grandstand. As there was no requirement in the system design for extended frequency response there are no subwoofers installed since the AX2010P frequency range reaches easily down to 75Hz, and the Transmission Line Back-Loading design further helps to reduce low frequency energy radiating from the rear of the speaker arrays, resulting in natural cardioid response. The whole audio system is powered by ten HPX6000 amplifiers and four HPX4600 amplifiers, and controlled by three PC260 processors, and is networked via Proel's PRONET remote control software.
Installation and commissioning took place over several days during June in preparation for the National Games later in the year. According to VAN Intertrade's managing director Veerat Udomsit the work done on simulating the system performance paid off as only minor adjustments to loudspeaker aiming and settings were needed.
"This project demonstrates how a good acoustical and architectural 3D model can provide a powerful tool in the interaction between installer and manufacturer," says Axiom's Daniele Massaccesi, "with the ability to offer the client a high level of predictability and reduce the risk of expectation disappointments."
Mr. Nipol Boonyamanee, Chief Executive of the SongKhla PAO, commented on the sound quality from the new audio system. "The sound is very good, and can be heard clearly in all areas of the stadium. I am very satisfied." And the stadium builder team had this to say: "We have built this stadium and cooperated with many sound system companies, but this system from Axiom is the best sound that I have ever heard. Although it is a fairly new brand here in Thailand Axiom has certainly proved its worth."