Electro-Voice at Papal Mass in Berlin's Olympic Stadium

The official visit to Germany of Pope Benedict XVI in September received worldwide press coverage, while the national media provided comprehensive information on the event by means of special programs, talk shows, and live reports. The highlight of the tour was a visit to the German capital, Berlin, on September 22-23, where the Pope celebrated mass with 61,000 followers in the Olympic Stadium, while millions more followed the event on television.

To ensure that the Pope, who has a relatively quiet voice, was intelligible in the 56,000-square-metre oval stadium, earthly technology was called into play. Sound reinforcement equipment from Electro-Voice was used exclusively.

In addition to the 171 Electro-Voice XLC enclosures already installed, a multitude of additional EV array elements were deployed on this occasion. These included 104 XLD281, 40 X-Line Xvls and Xvlts (main in- and out-hangs), as well as 60 XLE181 enclosures on a delay line. This mighty system was powered by Electro-Voice amplifiers. In addition to the 90 P3000RL power amplifiers of the stadium system, a further 80 TG7 amplifiers were used for the event. Six NetMax N8000-1500 loudspeaker controllers provided the system control via an Optocore network (divided into three redundant circuits). As well as delivering an exceptional degree of intelligibility, the Electro-Voice systems deployed here in massive numbers once again displayed their fine handling. This proved especially valuable, as the production team had only been assigned three days for the installation, tuning and sound check with the 800-voice choir -- an extremely tight schedule, given the magnitude of the event and the level of expectation.

"It was naturally a great honor and a joy for us to be able to contribute to this moving event," commented Robert Hesse, vice president sales communication EMEA of Bosch Communications Systems and managing director of EVI Audio. "It was also extremely gratifying to hear and see how magnificently our systems mastered the quite extraordinary tasks assigned to them."