Since its stadium debut at California’s Selland Arena in the spring, Tannoy’s VQ series has swiftly established a reputation as one of the leading loudspeaker systems in the sports arena sector.

The earliest examples of VQ arena installs came out of the US and this trend was continued in September as New Jersey’s Monmouth University cut the ribbon on its
state-of-the-art, $57 million building, which is now
home to Monmouth’s various ‘Hawks’ sports and athletics teams.

Acoustic consultant PMK International was asked to provide a PA system for the 4,100-seat arena and wasted no time in specifying the VQ series, having had very satisfactory results with the loudspeaker range in other US sports arenas over the previous year.

On the decision to spec VQ, PMK’s commissioning consultant, David H Stearns, commented: “As a firm believer in the mid-high horn, the design solution always centred on this type of device and Tannoy VQ was the clear choice in our final specification. As arenas go, this is the most acoustically behaved venue I’ve heard.”

In recent months, consultants and contractors in Europe have begun to follow the American lead in recognition of the advantages of VQ in a stadium environment. Last month, AV contractor Impact Europe deployed the system as part of a significant upgrade to the Coop Arena in the northern Swedish city of Luleå.

Located just 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle, the 6,000 capacity Coop is a major sports facility and has undergone a major upgrade, including an overhaul of the PA system.

Impact Europe’s Swedish offices turned to specialist audio distributor Standard Audio, which designed a new system for the main hall based around the VQ series.
VQ’s tight, controllable directivity coverage made it ideal for an arena such as this, where hard reflective floor (usually ice) and roof surfaces presented serious challenges when it came to achieving good intelligibility. As such, only 12 full- range VQ enclosures were required to provide adequate coverage for the seating areas around the four sides of the arena. Four VQ 60 (60-degree conical dispersion) devices were flown along each long side, supplemented with a down-firing VQ 85DF mounted to the bottom of the VQ 60 cab. A pair of VQ 100 devices with a wider 100-degree beamwidth provide coverage at each end of the arena.

Standard Audio’s Roger Friberg commented: “The placement of the speakers was thoroughly simulated and tested in EASE. Our main concern was to get even SPL coverage across the full public area. As this was our first installation of VQ, we had no experience of its behaviour. The result, however, was quite beyond expectations, achieving SPL within 3dB over the whole space. There was little or no difference in the tonal balance and characteristics of sound, wherever we measured. No hot spots or weak corners.”

So why exactly is VQ proving so suitable for this type of installation? It would seem that due to the significant sensitivity of the speakers – particularly the VQ 60, which provides 115db for 1W/1m – very high SPLs are achievable with relatively modest levels of amplified power. One of the critical advantages of this efficiency is that it allows consultants to design a high performance system with integrated voice alarm function crucial for sports arenas. The VQ series handles this without the need for a high-powered UPS (uninterrupted power supply) and with very modest battery backup requirements. This is not to mention the low box counts and related benefits, such as reduced need for cabling.

There are a now a number of stadiums across Europe that are taking the VQ route. It would appear that Tannoy is becoming a standard in the sports PA market.
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