Event production specialists AMBION GmbH of Kaufungen, Germany, supplied the audio requirements with support from CODA Audio for World Fitness Day 2018 at the Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt. Two stages were in use throughout the day, with a programme of events that effectively turned the area into the largest gym in the world.
Music reinforcement plays an integral part in fitness work-outs – gyms all over the world invest heavily in high-quality audio systems, so it stood to reason those attending a gym on this scale would expect and demand the kind of tight, hi-fi sound to which they were regularly accustomed. Synchronising mass workouts involving thousands of people would need clean, powerful audio, delivered simultaneously to every participant, regardless of their position in the arena. Vollmer of AMBION installed CODA Audio systems to meet the challenge.
AMBION used 44 CODA Audio AiRAY units at the Commerzbank Arena. On the centre stage, the challenge was to cover an area 75m deep and 40m wide and fill it with music. The aim was to work without delay lines using left, right and centre reinforcement with near fields and an arc of subs. The system for this stage comprised of 24 CODA Audio AiRAY, 6 CODA Audio ViRAY, 6 CODA Audio APS, 16 CODA Audio SCP-F, driven by 10 CODA Audio LINUS14 amplifiers controlled by 4 CODA Audio RC20 LINUS CON.
A similar brief was attached to the Active Stage which required excellent intelligibility and power across an area of 50m by 35m. 20 CODA Audio AiRAY, 6 CODA Audio ViRAY, 3 CODA Audio APS, 12 CODA AudioSCP-F driven by 12 CODA Audio LINUS RACK20 and 1 CODA Audio LINUS14.
Vollmer commented: “We were limited by weight restrictions on how large the systems could be but at the same time faced demands to cover an area 75m deep without delays. AiRAY and ViRAY were unbeatable in overcoming every aspect of the brief. The systems were easily powerful enough and delivered a homogenous frequency spectrum over the entire area to be covered. Simple and intuitive to rig, the components of each system – main, centre, near-field sub – played together excellently. Both phase and frequency (in the measurement result and reality) are convincing and high frequency is very stable.”