Providing a central party location for fans following the Netherlands in international tournaments, the Oranje Bus has become a football fans’ icon. The bus recently completed an extensive refresh for the 2024 Men’s European Championships in Germany that also included an update of its sound system with Dynacord electronics.
The double-decker is a mainstay for fans of the Dutch Men’s and Women’s teams, and has visited every major soccer tournament destination the Netherlands have played in since 2004. The parades it hosts see streets become a sea of orange shirts, with tunes and rallying cries blasted out from a compact-yet-powerful sound system.
The man behind the mobile sound sensation is Alex van Rijsewijk from Wytec Trade in Tilburg, who teamed up with Reinier Bruijns and Raymond Kersjes from Electro-Voice Face Pro on the update. The bus last had an audio upgrade for the 2021 Men’s European Championships, which saw a large amount of Electro-Voice and Dynacord equipment installed. The 2024 refresh has been more of an incremental upgrade with Dynacord electronics replacing third-party amplifiers and DSP to ensure the sound system performs at its peak.
The bus is equipped with four Electro-Voice MFX-15MC loudspeakers pole-mounted on a pair of Dynacord FX20-Pro subwoofers to provide powerful sound reinforcement for fans walking behind the bus. Meanwhile, sound inside the vehicle is courtesy of six ultra-compact Electro-Voice EVU-1082/95 cabinets with low-end support from the manufacturer’s legacy ZX1-Sub.
Power comes from via a combination of Dynacord IPX10:4 with a pair of third-party amplifiers and an external DSP. These third-party electronics have been replaced and upgraded with a pair of Dynacord L3600FD DSP amplifiers, which provide power and DSP alongside the IPX10:4.
One of the major advantages that the Oranje Bus has seen from this has been the ability to use Dynacord’s SoniCue Sound System Software for setting up and control. While the software has been used since the initial install in 2021, the mixed nature of the solution meant that the full benefits could not be felt. With Dynacord now providing the complete backbone of the solution, the real power of SoniCue has been experienced, with operators now having direct access to every parameter of the sound system.
With the system upgraded, Dutch fans have again taken over the streets of Germany.
