Complex network to ensure the safety of 351,000 visitors to "IdeenExpo"

As the career orientation event gains in popularity, heightened precautions are being taken to safeguard the young visitors to the exhibition centre in Hanover - N&M installed an extensive glass-fibre network for audio, video and data signals.

It was the fifth time since 2007 that the "IdeenExpo" held at the Hanover exhibition centre had inspired the inquiring minds of children and young people. With a mixture of fun and serious activities, the career orientation event is designed to arouse their enthusiasm for vocational training in technical and scientific professions. A concept that was bigger hit than ever: from 4th to 12th July, 351,000 visitors set a new attendance record. Two hundred and thirty exhibitors displayed over 600 hands-on exhibits and held around 650 workshops at the free exhibition. There was also a comprehensive program on stage featuring experiments and knowledge shows as well as numerous concerts and stage acts.

Neumann&Müller Veranstaltungstechnik was once more engaged by the C3 Carpe Connect Communications agency to provide technical solutions in the fields of networks, power, audio, light, video and rigging. The main task of the team led by the N&M project manager Thomas Schäfer was to set up a complex sound system for emergency announcements that guaranteed the best possible levels of speech intelligibility throughout the entire exhibition area. A redundant glass-fibre network was designed and installed to exchange not only audio signals but also data and video signals. The N&M technicians laid a total of seven kilometres of glass-fibre cable to connect all the halls and various areas including the outdoor stages. All of the signals converged in a central control room. The safety precautions implemented by N&M also included a redundant power supply.

Due to the ever growing number of visitors, almost two whole halls had been added to the "IdeenExpo". However, the time corridors for setup and dismantling remained unchanged compared to previous years, which meant that the N&M technicians had to work in parallel in a number of teams. The quantity of material also rose again: in addition to the material for the control room, the audio equipment for the main and outdoor stages and that for the evacuation system, about 30 articulated lorries also transported around four kilometres of trusses, almost 1,250 lights, around 300 motors, 100 square meters of LED walls and 200 displays to Hanover.

Photos: Ralph Larmann für N&M

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