Bristol City Football Club

Introduction

Bristol City Football Club was formed as a limited company in 1897 and they played at St.John’s Lane, Bedminster until they merged with the professional team of Bedminster and transferred their matches to Ashton Gate where they are to this day.

Involvement

Capita Symonds office in Portishead, Bristol had been appointed as project managers and QS by Ashton Gate Ltd. over a period of years, and the Club identified the sound system as being a weak link and the source of much angst from the loyal fans. CS Portishead contacted the Acoustics division, based in the CS East Grinstead offices and requested a feasibility study.

From the initial site survey during a match Steve realised that most of the problem lay not so much in the three or four generations of sound system being used as a hybrid, but in the way in which it had been set up and the way in which it was being used. The Club were shocked to hear that it was unlikely to cost all of the budget which had been allocated.

The specification was duly written and, as required by the Football Foundation (who provide a 40% grant) went out to tender to three contractors. The local firm, Sounds Commercial, provided the best price and they also offered a price for completely replacing the electro-acoustic system. This ideal solution came in within budget and so in April 2007 work started to replace the entire sound system. Steve had left CS to set up SJA, but continued to work on the project as a sub-consultant.

In order to provide functionality of a similar grade to that of larger stadia, the Police were provided with a touchscreen paging unit, the DJ was given a completely new set of players and mixer, and ambient noise sensing microphones were installed to not only automatically control the sound level, but also provide foldback to the crowd for an improved atmosphere.

The system was considerably bigger than previous systems and was therefore split between to rooms in opposite stands, linked by fibre optic cable. DSPs were used to control and provide signal processing and the critical signal path were monitored for integrity using impedance sensing.