Handball European Championship

The 14th European Handball Championship was characterised by exciting matches, atmospheric chants and lots of sports spirit - and of course, event technology that supports exactly that! One of the venues was the Vienna City Hall, where preliminary and main rounds took place from 9th to 26th January 2020.

Our Austrian PRG team was responsible for the event. The experienced crew worked alongside our colleagues René Rarrel and Sander van der Hoeven from our Vienna office, to carry out the technical planning in close cooperation with the client and ensure a smooth implementation. PRG supplied the video technology, lighting and audio technology for this event, and when it comes to the technical equipment for a sports event, it is important that above all, emotions, information and the feeling of the sport are showcased.

Florian Riepe, PRG Head of Sports, and his team try to achieve exactly that:
"It is of course extremely important that such events are staged appropriately and that the sound, lighting and everything else that goes with it is perfect. We understand the athletes, the organisers, the fans and we also understand the marketing, which enables us to use the technology accordingly".

For the sound engineering, the choice fell on a powerful system from Meyer Sound. Among other things, 38 Meyer Sound Lyon-M line arrays were installed, along with 16 Meyer Sound Leopard. Meyer Sound UPQ-1P and UPJ-1P were installed in the lower tiers. For the bass, the sound experts chose Meyer Sound 1100-LFC loudspeakers, which were hidden under the stage and therefore, not visible. When installing the sound system, it was important that there should be no restriction to the audience's field of vision.

The audio technology delivered what it was supposed to, even the local media reported it a success:
"In any case, the public address system in the Vienna City Hall worked excellently: The arena in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus created good acoustics during the dress rehearsal for the European Handball Championship 2020," Peter Karlik wrote in the KURIER.

Besides the good sound, video technology played an important role. In total, two 46 square meter screens were installed in the hall. Absen T5 modules were installed for this. These LED walls showcased the activity from the playing field and doubled up as a scoreboard. To display this in parallel, the screens were each divided into two LED walls, but looked like one large area and could therefore be used to showcase different content.

The lighting technology also came from PRG. In addition to lighting the handball field and the audience ranks, the crew also equipped the Mixed Zone with lighting technology so that the players were also professionally illuminated during the interviews.

Even though the German national handball team only reached rank five, in the end, it was a successful European Championship with a great atmosphere, first-class handball and of course a successful technical implementation. Christoph Joklik from the "Österreichischer Handball Verband" was very satisfied:
"When there are 9,000 people in the hall, the music and the speakers are very, very important in handball to showcase the sounds and the atmosphere. As such, a very, very good sound system is incredibly important to make the event a positive one - and that worked outstandingly!"