An impressive light and sound show, with music by Rotterdam DJ Oliver Heldens, takes visitors for a ride to the top of the 185m high tower. You travel to the highest point of the Euromast and see the city from a 360-degree perspective. Meanwhile, a voice-over talks about the city and its inhabitants, its colourfulness, diversity, and Rotterdam’s special position as a world port in the heart of Europe.
The lift cabin of the Euromast is equipped with a 360 degrees Spatial sound system. This sends the sound through 20 speakers and creates a virtual 3D surround sound effect. Each speaker is individually controlled and provides a unique audio experience that surrounds you, putting you right in the middle of the action. The entire show is timecode-controlled, so that the light, the soundtrack, the voice-over, and the movement of the lift all run at exactly the same time.
Netherlands based Ata Tech took care of the delivery and installation of the audio-visual material and the complete lighting installation for the project.
To get the immersive sound experience perfect, there was a need for a compact amplifier with perfect sound quality. With 5 x PowerZone Connect 254 used to drive the 2-way speakers, which give the sound directly to the visitor and 1 x PowerZone Connect 504 used to drive the 2 x sub speakers in the lift.
Tom Aarts of Ata Tech talks more about the project; ‘’Important for the client was the ability for Ata Tech to provide remote support on the system for the entire experience. The Blaze Audio amplifiers are equipped with a Network connection and are included in the monitoring system, allowing monitoring of each amplifier output. The amplifiers are placed in the lift cabin, where it is important to use the minimum space. Due to the compact size of these amplifiers, we were able to place 8 audio channels on 1HE (rack unit), and the limited depth of the amplifiers was an advantage. Then in connection with heat development and energy efficiency, we had a preference for a class D amplifier, and the Blaze Audio PowerZone Connect series provides this – supplemented with UMAC™ technology which provides an unprecedented sound quality. Reliability is another important topic in an experience like this that is in constant use. Our previous experience with Blaze Audio products gave us the full confidence in this Danish brand’s amplifier solutions.’’