Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre

Iceland’s foremost concert and conference venue runs on an EN 54-certified LDA NEO+ voice evacuation system, integrated with QSC Q-SYS via networked audio.

Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre opened in 2011 on the Reykjavik waterfront. It is home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera and hosts international events throughout the year.

Its geometric glass facade, designed in collaboration with artist Olafur Eliasson, makes it one of the most recognisable buildings in Northern Europe. In 2013, it received the Mies van der Rohe Award, the highest honour in European architecture.

Spanning 28,000 m², the venue features four halls of varying capacity; the main hall, Eldborg, seats close to 1,800 people. An environment of this scale demands a public address and voice alarm system that is reliable, scalable and capable of integrating with the existing audiovisual infrastructure.

The core of the installation, completed in 2021, is the LDA NEO system — built for large-scale projects with EN 54 certification requirements. The project includes:

• 2 NEO-8060 units as the primary voice evacuation systems
• 10 NEO-4500 extensions (4×500 W RMS each) and 1 NEO-4250 extension (4×250 W RMS)
• 2 MPS-8Z multi-zone microphone stations for zone management and communication
• 1 VAP-1 emergency panel for event control and alarm management
• 62 TFL-2 line terminators for continuous supervision of loudspeaker circuits
• 12 SC-95TN EN 54-24 certified ceiling loudspeakers
• A redundant power supply comprising 4 EN 54-4 chargers (24 V / 3,600 W) and 8 120 Ah batteries, ensuring system availability in the event of a mains failure

A key feature of the project is the integration of the LDA NEO system with the QSC Q-SYS room control platform via networked audio. This allows centralised management of both day-to-day venue audio and voice evacuation activation, maintaining the priority routing and traceability always required under EN 54.

The project was completed in March 2021 in partnership with local integrator Atendi EHF, an Icelandic company specialising in audiovisual and communications solutions.

(Image: Ivan Sabljak / CC0 BY-SA 3.0)