The London Olympics
1,600 METRES
The London 2012 Olympics, with the majority of venues in the Greater London area, was hailed as a massive success by the world in general. The centrepiece of the event was the newly built 80,000 capacity Olympic Stadium in Stratford, which hosted the opening and closing ceremonies and all athletics events.
Sound reinforcement for the stadium was specified as L’Acoustics, with an unprecedented 220 V-Dosc and 51 ARCS II downfill cabinets employed across 22 speaker arrays providing the main coverage for the stadium. The arrays were hung on a wire rope tension ring which followed the oval shape of the stadium’s track and field, which was roughly 30 metres in from the roof and 30 metres from the ground. Minimising the length of speaker cable run was an important factor in the overall design, but given that the arrays were in the open air the relevant amplifier racks needed to be housed under shelter of the stadium’s roof. This resulted in a speaker cable run of 50 metres.
Van Damme Black Series Tour Grade speaker 8 x 4.00 mm multicore was chosen for the task, with the 4.00 mm oxygen free copper conductors providing the low loss cable runs needed for the installation. Ground stacked arrays and in-fills around the stadium were also cabled with Van Damme 4.00 mm multicores.
London based VDC Trading were also asked to supply the necessary Van Damme Starquad microphone cables for the event at the 11th hour, and over 2,500 assemblies of various lengths were manufactured and supplied in world record time.
4 years on, and the Olympics resumed in Rio de Janeiro…and VDC were again on hand for last minute miracles, supplying BBC Outside Broadcasts with 2,000 Van Damme Starquad microphone cables with custom labelling and coloured IDs in only 4 days.
The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo is moving ever closer, and Van Damme will again be on hand to support the audio and video production for this prestigious event.
WHAT PRODUCTS
WERE USED
1,600METRES
Van Damme Black Series Tour Grade Speaker 8 x 4.00 mm
27,500METRES
Tour Grade Classic XKE Starquad Microphone Cable