Butlin's
Bognor Regis, UK.
Industry: Leisure & Attractions
Audio Visual Integrator: Technical Arts
Brief: Butlin’s required a fully automated system that would run from the site’s opening times until close of play throughout the building. A multi-zone audio system was required that involved a variety of specific audio profiles for each public area.
Challenges
Pool environments are known for their reverberant acoustics and combination of heat and humidity, proving to be difficult areas in which to create intelligible audio due to their large spaces and reflective surfaces. Meaning pool environments can present a challenge for integrators looking to create intelligible, high quality sound in acoustically difficult environments, however Technical Arts went above and beyond to provide a fully automated audio system that conquered the reverberant acoustics of the new wave pool at seaside resort Butlins in Bognor Regis, UK.
The Solution
The Splash experience at Butlin’s incorporates separate zones: a reception area, café, changing village, flume tower, main wave pool area and sun lounge area, each with a distinctive theme that required their own individual music profiles to create distinctively different atmospheres.
Technical Arts selected a K-array line array system, consisting of Kobra-KK102i 100cm-long Pure Array Technology Elements and Kobra-KK52i 50cm-long Pure Array Technology Elements in the main pool area, mounted on the lamp posts that flank the wave pool.
The floor is mostly tile, the water is reflective, the general space is cavernous, and the system has to get over high ambient noise levels with kids screaming and shouting. It has its intricacies but that’s really what K-array’s characteristics are designed for.
On each of the lamps posts a pair of Kobra-KK102 passive line arrays form a two metre vertical column. The inner two columns were horizontally rotated inwards to focus on the pool, with additional rear firing Kobra-KK52 passive line arrays covering the small stepped areas either side of the wave pool, whilst the outer two positions were rotated slightly outwards to improve coverage across the wide beach area. All the Kobras are of stainless steel construction to combat the high humidity, and custom finished to match the décor.
The line arrays are supplemented by four Thunder-KMT18P passive 18-inch subwoofers located in the front wall above the wave machine, giving three sources to align into one wavefront and providing solid low end and a full frequency response. The complete speaker system is powered by two Kommander-KA84 four-channel amplifiers housed in a central equipment rack.
We designed and developed custom stainless brackets to mount the speakers onto the lamp posts. These not only had to be totally corrosion-proof, but also provide the right range of angle adjustment to match the EASE Focus model.
Kit list
Gallery
“The inherent challenges were there, but the Kobras’ ability to cover the required areas with controlled and even dispersion provided surgically precise coverage. The client is delighted with the outcome, as a result of tight integration between Dave’s creative design and our project team’s implementation of the K-array speaker system. Dave did some fine tuning towards the end of the project, which always brings another 10% out of what you think already sounds great.”
Martin Tarpy, Project Manager, Technical Arts.
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