Spreading wings at Bird’s Nest in Beijing with TWAUDiO

The Beijing National Stadium has been host to a number of events over a period of seven days where TW AUDiO systems have been deployed.

The stadium, which is also known as “Bird’s Nest”, was a project awarded to Swiss architects Jaques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The architects participated in a bid for this huge project together with Chinese design artist Ai Wei Wei and won top design with their model of the stadium, the Bird’s Nest. Herzog & de Meuron are also known for designing the Allianz Arena in Munich and the St. Jakob-Park in Basel. After its completion, Bird’s Nest has been host to the 2008 Olympic Summer Games.

On June 22nd 2016, prior to the events at the stadium, a demo day of TW AUDiO products was held at the Bird’s Nest Stadiums Press Conference Hall. It was attended by more than two hundred audio experts and users coming from all over China. TW AUDiO’s Chinese distributor Ruisheng Audio & Lighting Equipments Co. Ltd from Guangzhou organised the entire event and it has been conducted by TW AUDiO’s Asian support Augustine Edward. Mr. Edward gave a brief introduction to the company and its history, had a look at the products together with related reference projects and gave a detailed insight into the setup of the entire PA system for the imminent events at the Bird's Nest.

For the demo and the following events 36 x VERA36 have been installed in the stadium in combination with 8 x T24N and a further 12 x VERA36 as side fill, 16 x S33 and 12 x BSX subwoofers supported the system and all was powered by 42 x Powersoft K3DSP amplifiers. Edward’s emphasis lay on explaining to the attendees the correct setup of a system this size including the necessity of a professional system alignment.

On the evening of June 23rd, pop singer Sun Nan from China performed in the Symphony Live Concert “Birds will graduate” marking the beginning of China’s graduation season. Sun Nan led the graduation celebrations alongside other idols such as Tan Weiwei, Andy Hui, Li Yuxi and Zhangjiang. The aim of the festivities was also to allow previous graduates to relive their own graduation once again.

On June 25th and 26th the Video Games Live Concert was held in the stadium which was completely sold out on both dates. Video Games Live is an immersive concert event featuring music from the most popular video games of all times like Super Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, Space Invaders, Tomb Raider, Harry Potter and Silent Hill, to name but a few. Each concert is being played by a different symphonic orchestra.

The last event in this series saw China’s newest eSports event, the Beijing Electronics Sports Open (NEA) with the finals concluding the graduation revelry at the Bird’s Nest stadium. Sixteen teams made it to the NEA 2016 final, all competing for the prize pool of $ 100 000.

The chief sound system designer Mr. Song Duo Duo of the Chinese Centre of OISTAT (International Organisation of Scenographers, Theatre Architects and Technicians) was onsite overseeing the entire project. “Each show encompassed a different genre of music, from classic symphonies to Rock and Disco. The TW AUDiO system has an amazing directivity, incredible SPL and crystal clear highs”, said Mr. Song. “These qualities make it an outstanding line array. The concerts at Bird’s Nest Stadium sounded incredibly good with an intelligibility right to the farthest seats. We were absolutely pleased with the result."