The Roberto Meléndez Metropolitan Stadium, in Barranquilla, Colombia, seats 47,000 eager football fans for each of Atlético Junior football team’s home games. Colloquially known as the Metro Stadium, the facility opened in 1986 to host regional and international sporting events in Barranquilla, the third-largest city in Colombia. The Metro Stadium remains the largest venue in Colombia to this day.
With the stadium's popularity, management spent many years of the venue’s life needing to rent audio equipment for important events–a cumbersome process costing both time and money for the stadium. To remedy this, Metro Stadium management collaborated with local Barranquilla-based AV systems integrator Schaller Tech and audio manufacturer Renkus-Heinz to upgrade the stadium sound system.
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Greg Schaller, owner and systems engineer at Schaller Tech, worked closely with Metro Stadium to design and install a state-of-the-art sound system that met the location’s requirements.
"The Roberto Meléndez Metropolitan Stadium worked to update and refurbish the stadium with a goal of hosting South American Cup events,” said Schaller. “To do so, a good, well-designed, installed sound system is a big necessity. As the South American distributor of Renkus-Heinz, we knew if we showcased the technology to the stadium team, they would be blown away by the quality and intelligibility of the sound.”
In early 2020, the Schaller Tech team used Ease Acoustic Simulation software to model the stadium and begin the design process; however, the COVID-19 pandemic put the stadium audio upgrade on standby. Upon returning to the project, Schaller and his team installed more than 80 TX151, TX82 and TX62 weatherized loudspeakers from Renkus-Heinz.
The Renkus-Heinz T Series loudspeakers are a two-way speaker system utilizing advanced technology and application-driven engineering to deliver excellent, realistic live sound. Cutting-edge driver technology and unique innovations like the Complex Conic horns deliver natural-sounding music and intelligible speech. Versatile enclosure designs, combined with a wide range of mounting options and associated hardware, provide unrestricted flexibility for portable and installed applications.
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"We are very passionate about sound and Renkus-Heinz offers excellent sound quality and coverage," said Schaller. "The TX Series helps us achieve a balanced sound for the entire stadium. There are speakers installed throughout both the top and bottom rings of the stadium, and we can deliver consistent coverage to every seat—and they sound great!"
Schaller says the Metro Stadium opted for passive, non-powered versions of the TX Series loudspeakers to reduce weight as some speakers mount as high as 20 meters. A set of four amplifier racks with Linea Research high-power amplifiers are fixed on the stadium's roof and connect via fiber and a Dante audio network.
"The stadium hosted their first game in September 2021, and the Renkus-Heinz audio system was the sound solution,” said Schaller. “A few of our team members were there, and we received great feedback from stadium management, spectators, event sponsors and other vendors. Everyone was very happy with the sound.”
