The Stadion Arnošta Koštála in Pardubice, Czech Republic, is now equipped with a Powersoft audio system, delivering a modern public address and match-day system.
Originally opened in 1931, the stadium seats 4,620 people and is home to FK Pardubice, who hosted their first match in the revamped stadium in January 2023.
The public address system in the stadium needed to deliver adequate sound pressure and speech intelligibility, serving not just match-day announcements and atmosphere,
but also functioning as a safety system when needed.
These system requirements ensured that the replacement system could satisfy both needs across the entire system. The stadium also wanted to avoid the construction work and disruption that installing new signal cabling infrastructure could bring.
The solution needed to work within
the confines of the existing infrastructure and also had to be both safe and reliable in the hands of users without technical training.
Czech integrator, Forsound, took the lead on this project, addressing the cabling constraint by designing the system around a Dante network running over existing fibre-optic cabling.
Building the
audio and control distribution onto infrastructure that was already in place eliminated the need for new signal cabling entirely, minimising construction work while also keeping the project scalable and straightforward to maintain.
Amplification is provided by five Powersoft Quattrocanali units distributed around the stadium, including three Quattrocanali 2404 DSP+D and
two Quattrocanali 4804 DSP+D, delivering 2,400 W and 4,800 W respectively across four channels in a single rack unit.
The amplifiers are distributed around the venue rather than centralised, as this shortens loudspeaker cable runs and supports the uniform coverage that the design required.
The DSP+D versions provide integrated signal processing
and Dante connectivity in the same chassis, while Powersoft’s Smart Rails Management technology reduces power consumption across the varying load conditions of the stadium system.
The loudspeaker system combines two EAW MQ series enclosures with a distributed array of weatherproof coaxial units.
A custom control layer combines Powersoft’s WM Touch
wall-mounted touchscreen with PLC automation, a 4.3-in panel connected over standard Ethernet that provides control of sources, zones and scenes from a single interface. This setup enables one-touch system startup and operation with an emergency override built into the automation logic so that evacuation announcements take precedence over all other audio
without operator intervention.
Lukáš Sekera, system designer, Forsound, commented: "The existing fibre backbone was the key to this project. Once we designed around Dante, we could deliver a completely new audio system without opening up a stadium that had only just been rebuilt. The Powersoft platform gave us the processing
and network connectivity in the same units, so the distributed amplifier positions did not add complexity. The other half of the job was making sure that on a match day, someone who is not an audio engineer could walk up to a screen and run the whole thing safely."
Photo credit: PRODANCE