For over 50 years, the home games of the Greek football club AEL 1964 F.C. were played in the Alkazar Stadium, where the club enjoyed a considerable degree of success, including victory in the Greek national championship in 1988. Today AEL 1964 F.C. ranks among the five most successful clubs in Greece.
To pave the way for further triumphs, the club recently invested in a brand-new, ultra-modern stadium: the AEL FC Arena. As well as seating for 16,000 spectators, the new stadium offers 38 VIP lounges and the further advantage of satisfying the demanding criteria laid down by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for its three-star stadiums.
The task of devising a sound reinforcement solution worthy of the new stadium was entrusted to ABISS SA Audiovisual Systems of Thessaloniki. "Football is played in the open air," says Simon Kalantaridis of ABISS SA Audiovisual Systems, "which means loudspeakers in soccer stadiums are exposed to the elements all year round. For this reason, only a device capable of delivering top-class performance reliably in extreme weather conditions was worth considering."
With considerable experience upon which to base its decision, ABISS SA Audiovisual Systems opted for loudspeakers from Electro-Voice, and a team from EV's Greek distributor Omikron Electronics was called in to install thirty-four weatherproof Sx600 PIX loudspeakers in a ring below the roof of the arena – a solution that ensures homogeneous coverage throughout the entire seating area.
"We have installed Electro-Voice loudspeakers in a large number of sports stadiums in Greece already," says Omikron's Spiros Beratis, "including the Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus. We therefore know exactly what the systems represent for us and our customers. If you're looking for first-class performance combined with absolute reliability, there's no getting away from Electro-Voice."