EAW Loudspeakers Provide Great Sound for South African FIFA Fan Fest Venues During the World Cup
(Left) Surgesound, EAW’s South African distributor, put together an audio system for fans to watch the World Cup at Fan Fest venues in South Africa. (Right) The sound systems consisted of EAW 48 KF760 and 12 KF761 line array modules, including a complement of 48 SB1000z subs, with 48 KF730 compact line array modules and 48 SB730 subs providing in-fill.
Soccer fans at four official FIFA Fan Fest venues in South Africa followed the games taking place at the main stadiums in the World Cup competition via EAW speaker systems provided by Surgesound, EAW’s South African distributor. The systems consisted of 48 KF760 and 12 KF761 line array modules, including a complement of 48 SB1000z subs, with 48 KF730 compact line array modules and 48 SB730 subs providing in-fill. Monitoring was performed with EAW SM12 units, and 24 UX8800 digital signal processor units provided processing. Surgesound recently delivered a large complement of EAW speakers to Johannesburgbased The Sound Corporation, one of the biggest professional audio production houses in South Africa, in time for installation at the fan parks.
The Sound Corporation installed EAW speaker systems at Soweto (Johannesburg), Rustenburg, Bloemfontein, and Nelspruit. It was the only production company to be awarded more than two official FIFA Fan Fest sites out of the total of nine fan parks across South Africa.
For the thousands of eager football fans not lucky enough to get tickets for the big matches, FIFA Fan Fest areas provided the perfect alternative, allowing people to share in the football fever and take in the match on giant screens supported with world-class audio systems. According to official FIFA attendance figures, 300,000 fans gathered at the country’s Fan Fest venues, including 75,000 just at the Soweto Johannesburg location, for the month-long competition’s opening match between South Africa and Mexico.
Andrew Rowan, founder of Surgesound, says, “The Sound Corporation has been a great client for many years and currently has the biggest EAW system in Africa.” The Sound Corporation recently welcomed the arrival of 60 EAW KF760 large-format line array speakers and 48 EAW SB1000z subwoofers.
Surgesound additionally supplied amplifiers from Lab.gruppen, with whom EAW recently announced a strategic partnership, to power the EAW speaker systems at the four fan zones. “We are extremely proud that a production house of The Sound Corporation’s caliber can trust EAW and Lab.gruppen products with their high-profile gigs,” says Rowan.
