In the modern era, a stadium must be a multifunctional – one weekend, it’s the cauldron of Bundesliga football for VfB Stuttgart; the next, it’s a concert hall for up to more than 60,000 fans of Ed Sheeran or P!nk. The MHP Arena in Stuttgart embodies this multi-purpose reality. Tasked with delivering an immaculate experience for everything from the UEFA EURO 2024 finals to the European League of Football Championship, the venue’s management knew that a one-size-fits-all audio solution was no longer an option. This meant that a strategic, multi-faceted audio installation was needed to transform the MHP Arena into a venue capable of meeting the highest acoustic expectations of any event.

With the eyes of the world on the MHP Arena for UEFA EURO 2024, the life-safety systems had to be infallible. At the heart of the stadium’s new safety protocol is the EN54-16 certified AtlasIED 5400, a Voice Alarm Control and Indication Equipment (VACIE) system that serves as an intelligent guardian for the venue. Its primary role is emergency management, where it can deploy clear, pre-recorded instructions to facilitate rapid and orderly evacuations. However, its intelligence extends to more nuanced situations and non-emergency functions, allowing operators to route live and recorded announcements to specific zones and groups with pinpoint accuracy.

This robust functionality is assured by a continuous self-monitoring feature, ensuring the system is always operational. The entire platform is a controller-driven, fully digital ecosystem built on Audinate’s Dante protocol, which provides uncompressed, low-latency audio transmission over a flexible IP network. This use of standard 100Mb, 1GB, or 10GB Ethernet infrastructure not only allows for a direct, simple connection to the stadium’s ProAudio network, but also enables a true plug-and-play configuration with automatic device detection for seamless setup and management.

Read the full article from ISSUE 44 below: