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On the 2nd of December last year, the second edition of Christmas World was held in Rome. During this event, Christmas settings in eight major cities around the world are recreated, designed by Italian set designers and artists.
For the sound reinforcement inside Europe’s largest Christmas village, the audio installation company Madema chose Audio Effetti and outdoor speaker enclosures from Audiophony, placing them in strategic points all over the park. A pair of DZ-MATRIX arrays were used for signal routing and processing, together with the WebRadio130App multimedia player, from the same company, used as a source.
64 Audiophony EXT415 loudspeakers and 16 EXT415SW subwoofers provided the sound for the area chosen by the City of Rome to host Christmas World, the popular Christmas event that transformed the park at Villa Borghese into a stage full of new attractions, including concerts, new musicals, traditional folklore performances, etc.
In an area of over 50,000 square metres, the well-known Roman A/V vendor Madema, a long-time customer of Audio Effetti, put all its experience into setting up an uncompromising sound system based on Audiophony front ends and outdoor PA speakers. This was a large-scale temporary installation, which was made all the more critical by the fact that the park, obviously outdoors, was subject to variable weather conditions with temperatures ranging between 5° and 12° C.
The EXT415 loudspeakers were positioned at key points in the village, mounted (front and back) and oriented using special brackets to cover different areas.
In areas that needed low-frequency reinforcement, the visually identical subwoofers were either placed on the ground or also mounted on lampposts to free up space on the ground and keep the installation as tidy as possible.
The electronics (the multimedia player and the two Audiophony digital audio matrices) in the control booth, on the other hand, were housed in a rack, which naturally also included the power amplifiers and the wireless microphone racks. All the amplification was wired at low impedance.
Let’s take a closer look at the main features of these installation products distributed by Audio Effetti:
Audiophony EXT415
This IP65-certified passive speaker enclosure, of considerable size (498×501×596 mm), is based on a coaxial transducer consisting of a 15" woofer loaded in a dual port bass-reflex configuration with concentric 1" horn tweeter. Triple protection behind the aluminium grille protects the loudspeaker itself.
It can be driven either at 100 V constant voltage or at low impedance (8 ohm), as in this case. The use of an ABS cabinet makes it particularly resistant to temperature variations and extreme weather conditions. The wiring is completely sealed with a cable gland.
EXT415 - 15″ + 1″ IP65 coaxial speaker 300 W / 100 V and 400 W / 8 ohm
Audiophony EXT415SW
Virtually identical in appearance, the EXT415SW subwoofer is designed to work in conjunction with the EXT415. It features a 15" woofer with a 3" voice coil. With a frequency response from 800 Hz down to 45 Hz, it can handle 400 W RMS and is capable of generating a maximum SPL of 130 dB.
Also equipped with a yoke-type mounting bracket, it features an ABS cabinet and an aluminium grille.
EXT415SW - Subwoofer IP65 15 " 300 W/100 V and 400 W/8 ohm
Audiophony DZ-Matrix
This software-controlled 12×12 digital matrix is one of Audiophony’s most successful products. It could be called the ‘heart’ of a matrix system, as it allows up to 16 identical matrices to be connected via an optional Dante card.
It allows you to assign and route all inputs and outputs and process the signals according to system requirements. DZ-Matrix incorporates a powerful DSP for precise calibration of every parameter!
In addition, the DZ-Control app, available for iOS and Android, allows you to control the matrix from your smartphone or tablet.
In this specific installation, two of them were used.
DZ-MATRIX - 12 x 12 (8 x 8 analog + 4 x 4 remote) with the possibility of adding 8 digital inputs / outputs and connecting up to 16 matrices via the optional Dante card
Audiophony WebRadio130App
This audio source device is the easiest way to access all the radio stations around the world! It connects to the Ethernet or Wi-Fi network to broadcast an international selection of digital music, Internet radio or DAB, but also has a USB port for playing MP3 files from pen drives or FAT32 hard disks, as well as a Bluetooth interface. It can also be controlled via the DZ-Control App. A display on the left-hand side allows you to navigate through the various menus via the central control and selection knob.
WEBRADIO130App - Multi-source system, webradio, LAN, Wi-Fi, FM tuner with RDS, DAB, USB/SD reader + App
Returning to the subject of our customer’s installation, Luca Molinari of Madema comments on the choice of Audiophony products used at Christmas World:
“An installation like the one at Villa Borghese prompted us to choose some of the most reliable components available on the market. As far as loudspeakers were concerned, we were looking for solid and durable products for outdoor use that could generate high sound pressure, but at the same time we didn’t want to resort to complicated concert line arrays. Rather, we needed a lot of enclosures for precise coverage with music and speech during Christmas World, and the choice fell on this high-efficiency Audiophony PA speaker and subwoofer.”
As for the choice of DZ-Matrix, Molinari adds:
“In order to be able to route the audio source to all the different zones of the park, we needed not just a simple crossover matrix, but something more sophisticated that would also allow us to fine-tune the relevant audio parameters. So we found DZ-Matrix to be the ideal product, because of its versatility combined with its simplicity to use.”
Info: www.audiophony.com
Want to know more?
For further information, contact your local agent or send an e-mail to info@audioeffetti.it .
