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Home , 2015 European Games, Baku Olympic Stadium

PANSTADIA & ARENA MANAGEMENT 3RD QUARTER 2015 HEADINGBAKU OLYMPIC

Introduction... STADIUM Minister Rahimov Simon Clegg Katie McIntyre reports on the brand new 68,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, which was the centrepiece of this year’s inaugural .

aku was awarded the inaugural Lasting legacy tangible but equally important will be BEuropean Games at the 41st EOC the great benefit our city and country Minister of Youth and Sport and Baku Congress in . The ceremony was will gain in terms of positive attention 2015 CEO, , added: attended by President, Ilham from the world’s media and sport fans. “This great sporting legacy is part of Aliyev, who is also President of the a cohesive plan putting sport at the “The Baku will Azerbaijan National Olympic Committee; heart of a diversified economy and also leave our country richer than ever the then President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, healthy society. in terms of the Azerbaijani public’s and the President of , . UEFA skills, motivation and pride in what “It is important to remember that these Azerbaijan was subsequently awarded we can achieve together. Beyond the inaugural Games are part of President four matches in UEFA’s pan European employment opportunities the Games Aliyev’s vision to enhance our country’s EURO 2020 soccer tournament – three have already generated and will position as a dynamic, hospitable group games and one quarter final. continue to create up to and including cultural and business centre. Azerbaijan the Games, they will contribute to Speaking prior to the Games – which ran is already known as a key provider of providing Azerbaijan with an ever- from June 12-20 – Simon Clegg, the Baku energy for the continent, but thanks to deeper pool of experience and ability.” 2015 Chief Operating Officer, said: “The events like the 2012 Eurovision Song For Baku 2015, there were four clusters Baku 2015 European Games will provide Contest, the FIFA Women’s U-17 World a lasting sporting legacy for the city of Championship, the Baku 2015 European and eighteen competition venues, twelve Baku and the people of Azerbaijan. Not Games and, in the coming years, the of which were permanent venues, of only will the stadium be used for the 2016 European Formula One Grand Prix, which five were new builds, namely inaugural European Games and Euro the Baku 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games, the National Gymnastics Arena, BMX 2020 but also the Islamic Solidarity and UEFA EURO 2020 football matches, Velopark, Baku Aquatics Centre, Baku Games in 2017. our profile will be higher than ever.” Shooting Centre and the Olympic Stadium. There were then six temporary “The achievement of building the Rahimov continued: “These large-scale venues, namely: the Water Polo stadium should not be under estimated events will provide immediate use for Arena; Beach Arena; Basketball Arena; and it will be a great source of pride much of the infrastructure and human Mountain Bike Velopark; Triathlon; for Azerbaijan.” legacy of Baku 2015. Perhaps less Cycling road race and time trial.

About the European Games The European Games is a multi-sport event for athletes from all over Europe and is held every four years. The Games are owned, organised and regulated by the European Olympic Committees (EOC). The European Games were created at the General Assembly of the European Olympic Committees on December 9, 2012 in Rome, , when 84% of the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of Europe voted for the creation of the European Games. A number of cities have already expressed their interest in hosting the second edition of the European Games in 2019. The EOC is setting up a working group to coordinate the bidding process for the 2019 European Games.

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VENUE IN FOCUS

Baku Olympic Stadium Credit: Baku 2015 Organising Committee

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Baku 2015: HEADINGHost venues Village cluster: Olympic Stadium; National Gymnastics Arena; and Athletes Village. Introduction...City Cluster: Arena; Tofiq Bahramov Stadium; Freedom Square; and Baku Sports Hall. Flag Square cluster: Baku Aquatics Centre; Water Polo Arena; Basketball Arena; Beach Arena; Crystal Hall 1; Crystal Hall 2; and Crystal Hall 3. Western venues: Baku Shooting Centre; Mountain Bike Velopark; BMX Velopark; ; and Bilgah Beach.

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Centrepiece of the aggressive eighteen-month design real challenges were the aggressive Games: Baku Olympic and build schedule, the project team construction schedule and coordination Stadium performed design and construction of work with the design and simultaneously. To maximise design construction team members who are Baku Olympic Stadium Construction flexibility, the structural design used scattered across eight countries. The site preparation began on June 6, piled raft foundations, a system international team brought the diverse 2011, some eighteen months before more typical of high-rise buildings and best practices in stadium design the city was awarded hosting rights than stadiums. and construction from around the globe, to the inaugural European Games, for and successfully delivered this project in Thornton Tomasetti’s Managing which the venue was the centrepiece, time for the European Games.” hosting the spectacular Opening and Principal, Mike Squarzini, said: “This Closing Ceremonies. project was highly complex, delivered An advanced modelling approach, i.e. in a hyper-compressed timeframe. The BIM, also supported the accelerated In late 2012, the Turkish firm,Tekfen challenge was to build a world- schedule. The engineering team Construction and Installation Co. Inc., class stadium worthy of hosting developed an automated design was awarded the Design & Build contract the Olympics, all in 2½ years from routine to check beam and column for the stadium, which was financed concept to delivered facility. This is reinforcement against seismic code by the Azerbaijan national oil company a success story of collaboration and provisions, greatly speeding the design SOCAR. The foundation constructed creative thinking from all participants process. Precast reinforced concrete, commenced in January 2013. – ownership, designers, engineers and main and secondary steel structures The initial stadium design by the Turkish constructors – focused on achieving were all modelled using Tekla Structures company was then transitioned to that goal.” 19.0 and full fabrication drawings were delivered to the contractor’s fabrication the current design by the worldwide Senior Principal, Hi Sun Choi, added: facility in . architectural and construction “The stadium is in Baku on the Absheron service provider, Heerim Architects Peninsula, which has undergone several and Planners, based in Seoul, Korea. seismic events in the past. The name Design & build Heerim led the entire design team Baku means ‘city where the wind Construction of the six storey, and also provided construction pounds’, which is fitting. As such, the 65.7m-high, 225,000m² venue – management services. stadium was designed for the severe that sits on a 650,000m² site – was International engineering firmThornton seismic loads similar to California’s completed in February 2015. The Tomasetti provided structural design and the very high wind loads similar to 68,000-capacity stadium is now a services for the stadium. To meet an Alaska’s coastal region. However, the prominent landmark in the city.

SIS Pitches at Baku Olympic Stadium umbrian firm,SIS Pitches completed work at the brand new Baku Olympic Stadium, ready for the first ever European COlympic Games. The SIS Eastern European team in Azerbaijan built two brand new natural turf pitches – one training pitch and the main stadium pitch at the impressive stadium. Baku Olympic Stadium was used for the first European Olympic Games, with the opening ceremony taking place at the venue on June 12, 2015. The Games were designed and are to be regulated by the European Olympic Committees (EOC). The stage was built over the pitch for the opening ceremony, which saw 6,500 athletes and officials in attendance, along with 5,000 volunteers and performers. The SIS Pitches team went in after the Opening Ceremony to re-turf the pitch ready for it to be used for the Games from June 21 onwards. Following on from the Games, the venue will host games for the Azerbaijan national football team, as well as various concerts, and will fulfil FIFA’s and UEFA’s highest technical recommendations and elite stadium obligations for football stadiums. George Mullan, CEO for SIS Pitches was very pleased to be working on this project: “SIS Pitches are continuing to build their portfolio of work in Europe, and our team out there have already completed work in Azerbaijan, as well as , , Turkey and . It was great to secure this contract, and we were excited to be working on a stadium that will host the European Olympics, as well as many other sporting events.” Following on from the Games, both pitches will then be under maintenance for 12 months by the SIS staff in Azerbaijan. www.sispitches.com

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VENUE IN Comms at the European Games FOCUS BAKU OLYMPIC he P.A. People delivered the STADIUM Tworld’s largest, clearest and most innovative ceremonies communications (comms) system for the inaugural European Games. The Opening and Closing ceremonies technical challenge was how to make 80 frequency bands,” clarified The P.A. of international sporting events in the full-duplex wireless comms packs work People’s Chris Dodds. 21st century have become their own in the same place. It wasn’t just Clear-Com’s Freespeak II genre of epic theatre. Used by host “It had never been done before on that that made it into the stadium’s comms nations to communicate their history, scale,” said Nick Eltis, Senior Technical system. A huge range of equipment achievements, values and ideals, Director for the ceremonies for creative from the brand was used, including two the ability to conceptualise, design and production firmFiveCurrents . “We Clear-Com Eclipse HX-Omega Digital and deliver these vast spectacles have often tried to do big full duplex Matrix systems, two Eclipse HX Median is the preserve of a handful of elite wireless systems and it has literally Digital Matrix frames, fifteen HelixNet international creative and technical never worked, as the technology hadn’t Master Stations, 150 HelixNet Beltpacks, agencies. The P.A. People is one such been reliable enough.” and more than 200 Clear-Com V-Series specialist, with an impressive of track Intercom Panels. Clear-Com even The P.A. People solved this technical record of delivering comms solutions provided two support engineers to difficulty by using new to events such as the Winter and Clear-Com’s ensure that everything ran smoothly Freespeak II DECT wireless technology. Summer Olympics, Asian Games and with their gear. . DECT functions in the globally license- free 1.880 to 1.933GHz range. Complementing the comms system, The P.A. People successfully provided The P.A. People rolled out a site-wide communications, CCTV and technical Fritha Truscott, the Games’ Associate CCTV system, providing a vital visual services to the ceremonies of the 2015 Show Producer - Show Control, for complement to comms audio. European Games. An audience of nearly FiveCurrents, was in charge of the team 70,000 watched 2,000 performers and under the stage. She explained: “I had “We used our CCTV panel in the 6,000 athletes representing 50 nations a staff of more than 65. A fifth were light booth all the time,” said Travis in 20 sports open the Games with a local stage management and 18 were Hagenbuch, Lighting Designer for lighting combination of traditional music and employed just for the opening ceremony design group Full Flood. “We used it to poetry, gravity-defying aerial effects, as the ‘block captains’ on the revolve for help focus lights in places we couldn’t multimedia, international superstars the ‘Miniatures’ section. The comms we see, we used it to mimic some TV and pyrotechnics. had on the revolve were extraordinary. I camera angles, and even to check smoke have never been on such clear-sounding machines under the stage. Not having Central to the Opening Ceremony was comms. I had all these locals out there, to send someone to do all those things the giant revolving stage. At different that had never done anything like this helped save a lot of time.” times, it was called on to hold hundreds before, doing their own mini show-call of performers, rotate to display Synchronising playback, lighting, on each section of the revolve, and I was complicated scenery, emulate the birth cameras and cues involved displaying able to communicate with them clearly. of a mountain range with hydraulics, SMPTE time code throughout the control It was awesome.” and have both water and fire emerge rooms and in other system control from it. Its first big moment was a Carving out a safe operating spectrum locations, another responsibility that fell section called ‘Miniatures’, in which 300 for such a large wireless system was a to The P.A. People. performers and 200 trap doors were long process that involved the technical Travis Hagenbuch commented: utilised to create a revolving panorama team from FiveCurrents, The P.A. People “Everything supplied to us worked of recreated illustrations from the and the Azerbaijani government. flawlessly, was flexible, and was intuitive works of Azerbaijani national poet “We did the initial spectrum plan and to use, and I’ve never seen a comms Nizami Ganjavi, a 12th century writer allocated how many duplex and simplex system this large and complex. The and philosopher famous for works such channels we needed, as well as radio integration of all three of Lighting’s radio as ‘’, a story of star- microphones, in-ear monitors, WAPs and channels into the headset panels was crossed lovers said to have been the anything else with a frequency”, said Carl a life-saver when trying to talk to the inspiration for ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Gosine, the Game’s Technical Director – crew and find someone quickly – that’s a ” Bringing this one scene to life took Systems, for FiveCurrents. “It was all put feature I wish was on a lot more shows. 26 stage management staff working in a spectrum allocation chart. That was FiveCurrents are no strangers to in unison on stage, all on full duplex sent to the organising committee and this scale of production. Their recent wireless comms, with a further 54 to the government. We put in our first portfolio includes and Sochi full duplex wireless comms packs and spectrum request in September. New TV Olympics, as well as producing around 25 wired packs under the stage stations started coming on-line in January ceremonies for the recent events in as its own separate system. and we had to go back and say ‘this is Toronto and Los Angeles. affecting our spectrum’. There was a lot The comms system as a whole was “Using the comms system in Baku was a of back and forth.” vast; over 1,000 two way-radios, more superior experience; a super-integrated than 200 IP-enabled intercom panels The final piece of the RF puzzle was solution,” said Scott Givens, President and hundreds of beltpacks. It was one solved by splitting up the full duplex of FiveCurrents.“We work all over the of the largest communications system systems. “In the end, we used two world, and having a turnkey system that ever used in a live event. The biggest Freespeak II systems in two different works, is essential.”

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It has been designed to meet the highest Osram’s lighting solutions international standards for stadiums set by the Union of European Football sram was responsible for equipping Baku’s Olympic Stadium and the National Associations (UEFA), the International OGymnastics Arena with innovative lighting solutions. Federation of Association Football Osram subsidiary companies installed outstanding lighting at the European Games (FIFA) and the International Association 2015 in Azerbaijan; with Siteco having equipped the Baku Olympic Stadium with of Athletics Federations (IAAF). an HDTV-compliant floodlighting system, andTraxon having transformed the Enclosed in circular shape, spectator National Gymnastics Arena into a radiance of light with dynamic lighting solutions. access is possible via three large Prior to the European Games, Osram equipped the National Gymnastics Arena in ramps leading to an elevated esplanade Baku with an innovative and dynamic lighting system. 600 Traxon Wall Washer surrounding the building. From there, Shield AC XB bathe the facade of the arena in colourful light to create impressive 26 gates lead to the stands. combinations. 10 transparent screens implemented with a total of 11 km of Traxon There are three tiers of regular/GA media tubes, and constructed to provide supplementary mechanical stability, were seating on the sides and two behind fixed to the facade of the sports location. The sophisticated e:cue control solution goals. Between the lowermost and activates automatically with the coming of night to then switch off in the morning middle tiers, there is an extra level of hours. Pre-programmed sequences play graphic animations and various colour premium seating. The stadium contains chases across the screens. a total of 127 VVIP, VIP and CIP Suites, offering an overall capacity for 720 National Gymnastics Arena spectators. The venue also features some 3,078 car parking spaces, a 1,800-seat warm-up area and an Information Centre. The stadium’s outer cladding – designed by Thornton Tomasetti – is made of Texlon® ETFE cushions – designed and manufactured by Vector Foiltec – can be transformed into a giant screen at night. Andrés Amat, Project Manager for Vector Foiltec on the Baku Olympic Stadium project, advised: “Our ability to provide turnkey solutions, in a limited time, meant that we were best placed to deliver the project within the ambitious 18-month design and build schedule. Our in-house multidisciplinary expertise ensured a seamless transition into the design team. Early Baku's Olympic Stadium involvement meant that we were able to successfully influence the design to expedite the complex installation of the 51m high façade. “The lightweight structure with its diamond-shaped panels meant that substantial savings could be made in the steel tonnage, which resulted in cost savings and environmental benefits. Texlon® ETFE will assist with these goals, while adding to the aesthetics of one of the most iconic buildings in Baku.” Structure & form www.siteco.com The stadium’s structure was modelled in two locations: Volos, (Sdeng Steel & Structural Detail Engineer) and Istanbul, Turkey (Tekfen Engineering). that this way of communication would has taken up residency at the Baku Communication with the principal be the only way to achieve maximum Olympic Stadium, which is now their designers in Seoul, , teamwork efficiency with such a ‘home’ ground. The stadium will (Heerim Architects and Planners) and short timeframe. also host a number of major events New York (Thornton Tomasetti) was a in the coming years, including the success story using BIM tools. From the With the European Games now over, 2017 Islamic Solidarity Games and outset, it was clear to all participants the Azerbaijan national football team EURO 2020 matches. n

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