RCF for the venue of the World Junior Figure Skating Championship

The city of Tallinn is carrying out a project of revitalization of its former Soviet residential neighborhoods. The stunning and innovative Tondiraba Ice Arena, seat of the World Junior Figure Skating Championship in March 2015, was conceived and built last year with the aim of providing the Lasnamäe district with an avant-garde facility of great functional and architectural value.
Tondiraba’s acoustic quality is outstanding – the whole ceiling is made of wooden beams and sound absorbing materials, thus creating very good environmental conditions. The sound system of this new multi-purpose sports arena, with an area of more than 20000 mq, 5840 permanent seats and 1780 additional chairs for concerts, was provided by the local company Event Center with RCF audio products.
The arena needed a complete array system able to reproduce both speech and music clearly even at high sound pressure levels and ensure excellent standards of weather resistance, because humidity inside the building can become quite severe. Simulations were arranged by the distributor using EASE software.
Event Center installed 10 clusters in the main hall, each consisting of three RCF P4228 loudspeakers coupled with one P8015-S subwoofer. The clusters are directed towards the audience and used for broadcasting announcements and playing music, both from live mic input and playback. Eight additional P2110-T speakers ensure full coverage to the 30x60 metres playing field in the main hall.
Furthermore all practice rinks and the curling hall are equipped with 8 units of P5228-L two-way speakers and 15 units of RCF TT22 WP, a special weatherproof version that is adapted to open-air environments.
The distributor company designed the audio system of Tondiraba Ice Arena with the contribution of RCF Engineering Support Group. “We won the competitive tender called by Merko construction company with a bid based upon RCF products. Event Center met all criteria for sound coverage and resistance to humidity”, said project manager Priit Hinnov. “The P Series is compact, light-weight and weatherproof. With its 110° horizontal and 60° vertical coverage angle, the P4228 model guarantees perfect coverage of the whole area.”
The system in the main arena is powered by 28 RCF HPS 2500 amplifiers installed in five racks, that allow a separate control of the various parts. “Being able to control independently the various zones where the audience is seated, and having a separate amplification for the playing areas, is extremely important in a venue where various activities are performed at the same time”, Hinnov explains.
According to Hinnov, the building will become a major new facility for the country, not only for sports events, but also for concerts and conferences. This is one of the reasons why good intelligibility is a key feature of the chosen equipment.
The Tondiraba Ice Arena is owned by Tallinn City Sports and Youth Department. The new audio system made its debut with the recent World Junior Figure Skating Championship; members of the International Skating Union, which organized the competition, remarked that they were very satisfied with the new sound.
Tondiraba’s programme for the upcoming months is full of sports events and concerts, that will be supported by RCF’s installed sound equipment. In recent years the Italian company has been increasingly focused in providing customized solutions for large-size international arenas and stadia, with growing know-how and notable references, such as Signal Iduna Park (Germany), Baku Stadium (Azerbaijan), Wembley Stadium (UK), Juventus Stadium (Italy), and many others.
- More information about Tondiraba Ice Arena:
http://www.merko.ee/en/projekt/tondiraba-ice-arena/
http://kta.ee/tallinn-arena