Jan Smit’s AFAS Dome birthday show delivers arena-scale sound with CODA Audio

Precision audio engineering and a powerful live sound system brought Jan Smit’s milestone birthday concert to life for 12,000 fans in Antwerp.

For nearly three decades, Jan Smit has been a household name across the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Launching a recording career at just 10 years old, Smit has grown into a chart-topping star who commands packed arenas while also becoming a familiar face on television as a coach on The Voice of Holland.

That journey was recently celebrated in style as Smit marked his forthcoming 40th birthday with a spectacular show at AFAS Dome, where 12,000 fans delivered multiple standing ovations during a high-energy, feel-good evening. 

To match the scale and excitement of the occasion, organisers House of Entertainment enlisted audio specialists Studio Haifax, who deployed a CODA Audio system to bring every moment to life.

“We are a trusted partner of House of Entertainment, and have worked in this arena a few times, including on a previous Jan Smit show,” said system engineer Lennert Van De Velde, Studio Haifax. “For this event, we designed a system based on CODA Audio’s VCA ‘family’ of line arrays: ViRAY, CiRAY and the flagship AiRAY.”

Studio Haifax has an extensive inventory of CODA Audio and, in addition to exceptional sound quality, places a high value on its compact, easy-to-rig nature, which once again proved invaluable. “CODA was the logical choice for this show,” Lennert enthuses.

“The ease with which it can be rigged is always a positive for an arena show like this, and the form factor really comes into its own in a show where moving LED walls play a significant part. It was very important to keep clear sightlines, and the VCA family’s compact size really helps without any compromise on output. 

"The AFAS Dome is an acoustically challenging space, but System Optimiser (CODA’s proprietary prediction software) made it very easy to design the system, make adaptations, and predict coverage accurately. All the predicted data translated very reliably into the real-world application.”

Studio Haifax deployed a main PA comprising 10 AiRAYs per side (8 at 90° and 2 at 120°), with a further 14 AiRAYs (90°) per side as outfill. A total of 12 AiRAYs (90°) per side acted as delays, with eight ViRAYs (120°) per side as outfill delays, while 10 CiRAYs (90°) provided further delays, with frontfills of 12 ViRAYs (120°), with three x N-RAYs for balcony outfill. 

The low end was provided by 20 SCV-F sensor-controlled subs per side flown behind the outfill arrays, supplemented by 30 ground-stacked SCP sensor-controlled subs. The system was powered by CODA Audio’s LINUS DSP amplifiers.

“The combination of a cardioid flown SCV-F sub-array behind the AiRAY system, together with the ground-stacked SCP cardioid sub-array, made for very good control of the low end of the spectrum,” Lennert explained. 

“By adopting this design, we could keep levels on stage pleasant for the artists, and keep low-frequency energy away from the empty reverberant areas. The compact high output of the AiRAY, CiRAY, and ViRAY systems provided plenty of headroom and very nice coverage of the venue, without impacting the visuals of the show.”

“Studio Haifax is a valued customer of our Benelux distributor Viladco, and does consistently fantastic work using CODA Audio systems across a wide variety of applications, ranging from big arena shows through to theatre productions and corporates,” added global sales and marketing director for CODA Audio, David Webster. 

“It seems that rarely a day goes by without a Studio Haifax CODA system on the road, something that we’re proud of and very happy to see!”