Situated in the heart of a region of rugby, the 19,500 capacity Stade Ernest-Wallon
in Toulouse, is home to the famous Stade Toulousain French rugby union team.

The Stade Toulousain recently underwent a complete technical upgrade for its
stadium. With the passing of time, new security /evacuation standards such as
EN54-24 had been introduced and digital signal transport protocols streamlined with
the introduction of Dante by Audinate.

The club approached local audio visual installation company Triaxe with whom they
had worked, previously for a screen solution deployment — and the integration
company embarked on an empirical journey to find the best solution for the best
value. For as this is a privately owned rugby stadium, and has no standards (such
as UEFA) to ascribe to. The decision was for an advanced Powersoft Ottocanali
system to power a D.A.S. stadium speaker system.

Christophe Carles, Technical Director of Axente, who distribute both Powersoft and
D.A.S. Audio, first modelled the stadium using EASE predictive and visualization
software.

Working with Axente, Triaxe has designed a cost-effective and economic PA system
in which 5 of Powersoft’s increasingly popular eight-channel Ottocanali 8K4 drive 76
D.A.S. Audio WR8826 DX IP65-rated 80° x 80° dispersion loudspeakers.

The Ottocanali 8K4 outputs 1,000W per channel into 4 ohms (600W into 8 ohms) and
the sound is processed through D.A.S. Audio’s DSP-2060A processing.

Housing 2 x 6′ drivers, the speakers are hung in clusters of two — one enclosure
pointing back at the upper tier and the other for the lower stand. These are
mounted around the lip of the stadium roofs while in both corners of the “C’-shaped
stands there is an additional cluster of three speakers.

The sound was zoned using a pair of Yamaha matrix devices, which managed the
routing over several protocols including Dante.

The speaker system is made of 16 clusters of 2 WR8826DX for the opposite stand
(the “I’ shaped stand) and 19 clusters of two speakers for the “C’ shaped stand. On
top of that there’s a further cluster of 3 WR8826DX speakers in each curve of the C
stand.

Two Ottocanali 8K4 feed the I shaped stand (two speakers per channel in 8 ohms),
while the other three Ottocanali 8K4 cater for the C shaped stand (with also two
speakers per channel at 8 ohms). Both areas use a DSP2060A processor which,
combined with a standard program limiter and a D-Max clip limiter, prevents any
excess in the threshold and provides advanced protection for the speakers.

Axente recommended D.A.S. Audio WR8826 DX speakers because of their power to
size ratio. Although they are relatively small with embedded 6′ speakers, they can
go deep in the low frequencies and don’t overwork as spectrum optimisation is
managed by the DSP2060A processor. In addition, these speakers are rated IP55,
making it perfect for outdoor use.

The Stade Toulousain is now completely adaptable, and while in the sporting arena
it is used for rugby and football only, this summer the ground will also play host to
Nitro Circus.