February 2009 - CAMCO Q-Power amps have been touring the world of Formula One, powering an extensive distributed sound system for
BMW Sauber F1 team's mobile Pit Lane Park. CAMCO's own technical specialists worked closely with German company fournell
showtechnik GmbH to deliver a speech PA solution that could handle high noise levels from Formula One cars.
Pit Lane Park has been touring the world, setting up in the host cities of the Grand Prix events, such as Kuala Lumpur, Rome,
Warsaw, Shanghai and Las Vegas, allowing more than 400,000 motorsports fans the opportunity to check out the secrets of top class
motor racing at close range.
The immense size of the park, its handling and its transportation represents quite a logistic challenge. With a total weight of
500 tonnes, the Pit Lane Park is set up on a total area of approximately 6000 square meters. 50 technicians and five engineers
take five days to erect Pit Lane Park in a new location, running 15 kilometers of cables, and more than 150 people - from
security guard to cook - are needed to handle the 1,800 visitors that come every hour for this exciting interactive
experience.
Providing sound design and technical realization, the German company fournell showtechnik GmbH from Munich has been collaborating
with the specialists of CAMCO, a longtime equipment supplier. The challenge was to deliver constant levels of sound
reinforcement to all points around the 6000 square meter area. With such high noise levels coming from the cars on the race
track, the sound design called for loudspeakers close to the listeners to ensure high speech intelligibility.
An EASE simulation underlined the fact that this task could only be solved cost-effectively by a distributed sound system using
small but powerful speakers. Under the leadership of Thomas Fletcher, the fournell team selected Nexo PS8 because of the light
weight of the cabinets, and their unique asymmetrical horn which was ideally suited for this application. The PS8s are mounted on
poles, providing sound reinforcement for the commentary and the moderator's speech around the race track and grandstands, which
cover an area of 140m x 40 m. To ensure safe operation in the rain and the wind, the PS8s were modified by an additional foam
layer on the back grille.
The visual appearance of the speakers was matched to the colours of the Pit Lane Park. The Nexo PS8 cabinets, as well as the
mounting fixtures, were given a special silver paint-job by CAMCO. In total, 80x Nexo PS8 were mounted around the park; at the
Pit Lane Challenge, at the garage used for press conferences and in the lounges on the second floor. The system was managed by a
PS8TD-V2 controller and powered by CAMCO Q-Power 10 four-channel amplifiers with a total capacity of 100 kW, staying cool, even
under adverse circumstances, thanks to Class D technology.
fournell showtechnik's Thomas Fletcher was eager to praise the support of CAMCO and in particular the commitment of Norbert
Sangermann, who flew out to Istanbul to help the fournell team build the Pit Lane Park for Turkey's Grand Prix event.
More information
fournell show technik GmbH
Thomas Fletcher
http://www.fournell.de
CAMCO GmbH
Norbert Sangermann
http://www.camcoaudio.com
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