Known to fans as the El Templo del Desierto (The Desert Temple) or La Casa del Dolor Ajeno (The House of Others’ Pain), Estadio Corona is the home of Mexican professional soccer club Santos Laguna.
Located in Comarca Lagunera, the 30,000 stadium standard was re-built in 2009 allowing the club to upgrade the sound system after declaring the existing system – installed during the stadium’s initial build – to have reached the end of its lifecycle. In reimagining the audio system, the facility directors sought an unobtrusive, high-performance audio system with superior intelligibility, but that would elevate the fan experience.
‘Our team has had a business relationship with Estadio Corona since the stadium was built in 2009,’ says Albert Haua, owner of Audio Video & Control (AV&C). ‘We installed the initial audio solution in the stadium as well as all of the stadium’s CCTV, A/V content server, intercom, and broadcast camera infrastructure for televised games.
‘We knew that meeting those sorts of performance requirements on a tight budget can be difficult,’ he continues. ‘However, from our experience we knew Danley would be the clear choice.’
The AV&C team conducted several demonstrations with Danley Sound Labs’ loudspeakers, subwoofers and amplifiers. ‘We at Danley believe that you have to hear Danley to believe it,’ says Danley Sound Labs Western Regional Sales Manager, Kim Comeaux,. ‘The team at AV&C understood that and these demonstrations lead to opportunities for new installations like this one.’
The prior system was installed along the roof of the stadium. The new Danley sound system was originally conceived as a point source system, for ease of maintenance and for more even coverage. AV&C installed the new audio system in two light towers directed toward the stands so that all stands were covered. Each tower uses a single J8-94 loudspeaker along with a single SH62 loudspeaker as a side fill and a single SH46 loudspeaker as a down fill. The low end of the system uses a pair of Danley BC415 subwoofers on each tower.
‘Using only ten physical boxes, the entire system is powered by four DNA20K4Pro and two DNA10K4Pro amplifiers. The audio is distribued by a DNASC48 Advanced System Controller over a dedicated Dante network. Rather than replace the mixing desk, the facility has retained its existing Behringer X32 digital mixer console.
While the installation went well, rigging proved a challenge: ‘We had a very small footprint to work with within the tower,’ Haua says. ‘Everything had to be done according to the dimensions and space available. It was like building a custom suit to make sure everything fit correctly. However, it’s still amazing that such a small footprint, and number, of speakers can create such a large performance.’
‘I believe it’s Tom Danley’s designs like the Synergy Horn are what really make the difference. What a single Danley box can do, compared to a traditional line array, is truly impressive. The coherence achieved, even frequency response at every distance, accurate coverage, sound quality, power delivered, with an even 100dB+ on every area inside the stadium – it’s just outstanding compared to any other products on the market today.’
‘We’re really happy because all of our fans can now understand listen clearly participating in all of the activities we organise both before the game and during half time,’ reports Estadio Corona’s Head of Entertainment.
More: www.danleysoundlabs.com
