Announced in 2019 and completed in 2022, Europe’s largest outdoor music venue has officially opened its proverbial doors with a colossal inauguration event.
Located near Reggio Emilia Airport, RCF Arena boasts a modular capacity of 10,000 to 103,000 people and is equipped with a total of 410 class leading RCF loudspeakers. With audio quality taking pride of place amongst the venue’s features, the enormous Front of House system and 10 distributed line array delay towers can deliver an unbelievable total of 2 Megawatts of power.
The main stage is located in the lowest part of the Arena, a central position with a viewing angle of 110 ° and raked audience floor of 5% to ensure optimal visibility and acoustics. “RCF Arena is equipped with the most modern technologies for the best concert performance,” explains Emanuele Morlini, RCF System Designer. “The venue’s RCF TT+ audio system, part of the flagship line of large RCF systems for live events, consists of a main system at the sides of the stage, with 4 line arrays covering the front and a further 10 systems distributed on permanent metal delay towers, which can also be used as supports for video and lighting equipment. The sound system is designed for the best sound coverage to each seat, no matter the distance from the stage. At the same time, the orientation of the system is optimized to ensure the lowest noise impact towards the inhabited areas of the city.”
The inauguration of the Arena took place with a concert celebrating Italian sensation Luciano Ligabue’s 30-year career, who has a history of performing ground-breaking concerts in Reggio Emilia. For this prodigious occasion, RCF deployed a new TT+ line array system known as GTX. A brand new audio system with innovative features, GTX was distributed over 4 main arrays on the sides of the stage. Low-end reinforcement was handled by two arrays of suspended double 15″ modules and a sub-frequency reinforcement system on the ground made up of TTS 56-A double 21″ subwoofers. An additional 10 systems consisting of TTL 55-A line array modules are installed on towers for delay.
The GTX 12 Line Array and the GTX 15S low-range extension are part of RCF’s TT + ultra-high performance audio systems line and were designed in tandem with the debut of RCF Arena. GTX 12 features two 12″ woofers in an axially symmetrical three-way system with a 4PATH waveguide, while the GTX 15S hanging module houses two 15″ woofers in a bass-reflex loading configuration. The management of all parameters takes place through a new powerful high-bitrate floating-point DSP engine, the result of substantial research work by the RCF development team.
“We have been using RCF TT+ systems with Ligabue for many years, overcoming many acoustic challenges,” comments Ligabue’s live engineer, Alberto Butturini. “It was a pleasure to mix with GTX. It’s an audio system that will be heard for many years and will take RCF one step further in the concert sound industry. I was impressed with the quality of the high range and mid-bass. A super-linear and never-tiring audio system with excellent efficiency across the entire sound spectrum. “
The definitive GTX system will be part of a new range of loudspeakers set for release in 2023 and fully compatible with RCF’s RDNet digital remote control platform. RCF have announced that the GTX 12 system possesses the highest power-to-weight ratio, lowest distortion characteristics and highest dynamic range of any system ever built by the Italian manufacturer.
Proudly sporting one of the most advanced audio systems in the world, RCF Arena offers a truly grand venue experience unrivalled across the European continent. Aided by its central location- with airports and a high-speed train station connecting the venue to Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome, and Naples, RCF Arena looks set to become an international phenomenon.
