KITZBÜHEL, Austria – Organizers of the venerable Hahnenkamm Downhill and Slalom Races turned to rental company Murdock Event & Media for an audio assist to reach the 22,000 spectators drawn to one of skiing’s premier events. Murdock Event & Media provided a solution that included the use of Firenze Series gear.
More details from K-array (www.k-array.com):
It is 75 years of the Hahnenkamm Downhill and Slalom Races, in the legendary Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel. Considered the Super Bowl of Ski Racing. There is no faster race, none more spectacular, none more prestigious than the notoriously difficult Streif in Kitzbühel, where skiers travel at a 140km an hour from 1665 meters in one of the most difficult courses in the world, it’s an adrenaline junkies dream, as well as the outstanding Ganslernhang which is famous for its difficult and tricky slope. The 22.000 passionate fans including high profile celebrities who all came to watch the Slalom-event and these modern day gladiators attack the steepest ski slope in the World, where some triumph and some fall.
The organisers of the Skiclub Kitzbühel rely on a grateful partnership with the local rental company Murdock Event & Media who assembled a large production team for the event, sparing neither expense nor effort for this complicated audio challenge on the Slalom-Track and chose Snow audio regulars K-array for voice and music who have demonstrated unrivalled reliability in the most extreme weathers at other key ski events such as the Val Viemme in Italy.
“The system was ultra reliable even during the blizzards we encountered at the event. With the steering of the new Firenze series we can keep the audio system out of sight making more room for the fans. We loved the KH15s used for side fill, it supported the Firenze system to give it more than we have ever heard before at this event.”
Since K-array launched the Firenze Series in October 2014, audio designers have been looking for a way to challenge the new system and they could not have chosen a more extreme challenge then the environment at the Slalom. Sub zero temperatures, an abundance of snow and difficult terrain for transportation and building. The whole production team at Murdock Event & Media have been fine tuning over the years to find the best solutions and they turned to the Firenze Series in a bid to reach further with sound whilst rely on the system during difficult weather conditions and create more room for the spectators. The masterpiece of this year’s sound reinforcement design was the Firenze Series KH8 Line array touring speaker and powerful KS8 subwoofers. The team flew a line of 6 KH8 units and 3 KS8 units with 4 KH15s for side fill.
One of the key advantages of the Firenze series is the software calibration and digital acoustic steering that allowed Klaus Hausherr K-array’s technical Concert team to make digital calculations and configure the speaker using FIRmaker software which would then calibrate the onboard FIRfilters to direct the sound around the difficult terrain that lay ahead of them. The Skiclub Kitzbuhel commented: “We were really satisfied with the system, everyone could clearly hear all the way up the mountain.” Klaus Hausherr diarised his experience with the Firenze system on the slopes. “The load-out on site, was at 7:30am and all the system was suspended and ready to play at 11:00am. During the set-up, I dedicated myself to finding the exact measurements of the site, distances and settings, with a professional laser measurement tool. Finally, the presets system set-up can be changed on Armonìa software for complete control and monitoring of the system. 600 Kg. and 6 boxes only, for a system able to push a clear sound over 200 mt is really a whole new frontier.”
Karl Wienand, from Austrian Distributor Musik Lenz, added “It is a great advance to have the up-tilt possibility for these kinds of events. You can easily play the sound up the mountain which, is really different to any other system” Stefan from Murdock also commented “The system was ultra reliable even during the blizzards we encountered at the event. With the steering of the new Firenze series we can keep the audio system out of sight making more room for the fans. We loved the KH15s used for side fill, it supported the Firenze system to give it more than we have ever heard before at this event.” One of the issues the team faced with the system was the extreme weather conditions. The Firenze series fought through 6 days of intense weather including high winds, big freezes and giant snow falls yet delivered the powerful sound it needed, throwing further SPL than the event has ever heard before and that is an impressive testament to the latest innovation from the Italian manufacturer.
