T: +44 (0)1440 714006

In January 2009 Professional Sound Consultancy were invited to tender for the supply, installation and commissioning of three Sound Re-enforcement systems as part of the refurbishment work at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre.

SPIE Matthew Hall, working on behalf of Greenwich Leisure Limited, arranged for Professional Sound Consultancy  to visit site and make a detailed study of the existing installation.

Appreciating the tight schedule for the project to be fully operational and working in line with the Arup Associates specification, Professional Sound Consultancy produced a fully compliant tender return. The tender included fully completed Arup data sheets, system descriptions and full schematic diagrams for each of the three proposed systems in:

The Main Arena - The North Balcony - The Swimming Pool

Orders were raised on March 6 specifying all systems to be installed, tested and handed over by April 14. With the first major event, a Pentathlon, due to be held on April 25, programmed slippage or delays were not an option.

Site testing showed the existing Electrovoice loudspeakers in the main arena (installed more than 20 years previously) were not working and could not be used as part of the new system. Professional Sound Consultancy selected RCF Acoustica loudspeakers as the most appropriate and cost effective replacements.

Professional Sound Consultancy designed each of the three systems to operate on a stand-alone basis which would be used for local sound re-enforcement. 

Equipment was carefully selected for each area :

Eight hand held Trantec S5.3 radio microphones, two Shure SM58 hand held microphones, an MPM12 Soundcraft mixing desk, three QSC GX3 rack mounted power amplifiers and four RCF Acoustica C5215 500W loudspeakers for the Main Arena

Three wall mounted dual XLR microphone input plates connected to a rack mounted TOA A1724 mixer amplifier and two wall mounted TOA BS1120W column loudspeakers for the North Balcony

Three Trantec S5.3 radio microphones, an Audiotechnica U857Q gooseneck microphone and base, a TOA  A1724 240W mixer amplifier and six Penton horn loudspeakers to replace the old faulty TOA horns for the Swimming Pool.

Professional Sound Consultancy worked closely with SPIE Matthew Hall to co-ordinate the positioning of cable containment and with both Greenwich Leisure Limited and the licensing authority, JFMG to help with the radio microphone license application.

All the rack mounted equipment, associated racks and RCF main arena loudspeakers were delivered to Professional Sound Consultancy for full rack build and testing to be carried out before being delivered to site. The six large RCF loudspeakers were attached to the existing lighting rig using safety  bonds and M10 eye bolts as the primary form of fixing. To help reduce voltage drop between the power amplifiers and loudspeakers 4.00m² multi-core cable was used, terminated into a custom built junction box with Speakon connectors above the lighting rig.

The entire installation was completed and handed over to SPIE Matthew Hall on March 31, just 17 working days from receipt of order and two full weeks ahead of schedule.

This left time to give full client training to Greenwich Leisure and provide a complete operation and maintenance manual to SPIE Matthew Hall before the Pentathlon event on April 25, which was closely monitored by Professional Sound Consultancy's engineers.

Both SPIE Matthew Hall and Greenwich Leisure were delighted with the systems provided by Professional Sound Consultancy and the expertise of our engineers and support staff.

"All of the Crystal Palace Project Team were very impressed with the level of information that was supplied at tender stage, this was exactly what we were looking for and allowed Professional Sound Consultancy to hit the ground running in what was a very tight programme" Keith Stuart Project Manager, SPIE Matthew Hall