2012 Olympics

Locog and the ODA

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and the Olympic Delivery Authority were the organisations responsible for overseeing the planning and development of the 2012 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.

A 500 acre sound system

In order to deliver the most inclusive and media rich Olympics experience ever, the Olympic park site required multiple audio systems to support the operational activity. Alongside the many venue specific sound systems, there was a requirement to design a park wide sound system capable of facilitating the Opening Ceremony and the 250,000 visitors daily during the games. The Client set the brief to design a high specification robust networked and zoned sound system covering all public areas end to end across the park. The system needed to provide soundscaping, background music and pre-recorded and live messages across all areas of the park in a zoned arrangement. Members of the Recursive team provided design, coordination, specification, installation management and commissioning of the common domain sound system to achieve this brief.

The development of the worlds largest network digital audio public address system

David Yates led the team designing the common domain sound system, which needed to traverse the 560 acres of the park’s landscape, covering multiple entrance gates, bridges, ducts, open park areas, concourses and more. The arrangement required a robust solution which allowed for redundancy and backup, and a carefully considered approach to the long cable runs to avoid electrical losses and ensure that the target SPL could be met at each and every location. Speech Transmission Index needed to be excellent so that all messages would be clearly conveyed to a global audience of many languages. Alongside this central speech requirement, there was also the challenge of designing a system which could also support background music.

900 million people

The common domain sound system design became the largest network system of its type in Europe if not the World. It successfully performed throughout the games facilitating the opening and closing Ceremonies and the 250,000+ visitors who visited the park daily across the duration of the games. The unparalleled success of the London 2012 Olympics was seen by over 900 million people and nearly 8 million tickets were sold. The correct acoustical design ensured that the Olympic park was a safe and enjoyable experience and ultimately led to the creation of Recursive as a company - What more can we say.

The London 2012 Olympics Post Review

The Guardian

2012 Olympic Games

Bosch

Lab Gruppen

Audinate