When Konya was under consideration as one of the host cities for a future European Championships to be held in Turkey, construction of a brand new UEFA-compliant stadium was proposed.
While original plans set a capacity of around 33,000 seats, this was later upgraded to 42,276 seats — divided over two tiers, with an additional 50 VIP boxes — and the new facility, based in Selçuklu, will now provide the club Konyaspor KR with a state-of-the-art stadium for home matches.
Asimetrik, the Turkish-based distributors and AV system integrators, were awarded the contract to provide a network-based professional grandstand PA system, as well as broadcast infrastructure system, not only compatible with UEFA requirements (but also FIFA and IAFF). They also designed and supplied a PA/VA emergency evacuation system, C.I.S. infrastructure as well as full conference and visual presentation tools for conference, press and meeting rooms. All design, supply, installation and commissioning were undertaken by Asimetrik, who turned to RCF’s Acustica H Series as their primary sound source.
To ensure such seamless acoustic design and installation, Asimetrik worked alongside main contractor, Saridaglar Construction Company and engineers from the Konya Municipality from the very beginning to design a seamless acoustic environment. Led by their project manager, Burak Bayrak, they designed a number of unique solutions, using EASE Simulations to visualise the optimum distribution of sound to the seating areas, using the predictive software to set correct splay angles of the RCF loudspeakers and predict the performance with absolute precision.
Turker Baran, Asimetrik’s Acoustical Design Engineer, and Burak Bayrak knew that the RCF solution was a proven model, having been inspired by the installation at Juventus Stadium in Torino. “The H Series is also a perfect fit for this stadium — in terms of both power and dispersion,” says Mr. Bayrak. “RCF’s technical project team partnered us to design the system for Konya. RCF is a unique and well-established brand with a very strong history, and as a partner for 14 years we are delighted to be their distributor.”
RCF Acustica H1315 WP loudspeakers were used for the network-based professional grandstand address system. Asimetrik specified 96 pieces of RCF Acustica H1315 WP loudspeakers, a three-way full range loudspeaker that incorporates a 15in LF transducer, a 10in cone MF transducer and 1.4in exit titanium compression driver. These are mounted in double clusters across 48 rigging points, with a 12-metre distance between each cluster.
But installing the speakers on the catwalks had been something of a challenge. “We worked in coordination with the roof design officials to ensure safe installation and weight distribution, and we installed the clusters beneath the catwalk,” continues Mr. Bayrak.
The stadium exceeds the minimally required SPL set out by UEFA. Burak Bayrak stressed, “Our standard is based on the UEFA 2020 criteria for this stadium. Konya Torku Arena has an STI value of 0.8 — which is an excellent speech transmission index value.
After installation, NTI Audio XL2 Hand Analyzer (IEC 61672-1 Electroacoustics), NTI Audio Minirator MR-Pro Tone Generator, NTI Audio MA220 Type 1 Measurement Microphone and Norsonic type 1251 Sound Calibrator products were used for measurements and calibration.
The solution Asimetrik designed also included RCF loudspeakers for the main sound system, meeting rooms, and press room. Every audio product was carefully selected as being best fit for purpose, and for ease-of-use in multi-purpose situations.
Finally, to meet the UEFA specified media requirement, hybrid fibre cables, HD signal transmission cables, and digital audio cables were used along with an industry standard network audio infrastructure to control, process and distribute the sound. This also allowed Asimetrik to connect the main bowl system and PA/VA together, and have the stadium covered on a single site-wide network.
“Designing a system which is fully compliant with UEFA standards was very complex, but the RCF products were exactly what we needed to make it work,” concludes Mr. Bayrak. “The RCF H1315 sounds quality is superb and the system is extremely compact as well. A number of matches have already been played and we have had very positive feedback.”
“Uniting audiences with stimulating and high quality sound is a careful process especially at stadiums that are designed to be compliant with UEFA standards,” emphasises Gorkem Celikbilek, VP of Asimetrik. “The process incorporates a combination of experience and an obsessive attention to detail. We truly understand of the importance of sound quality. Our highly experienced team expertly analysed the properties of each space and we are extremely happy with the results.”
