Mimecast

Challenges

Installed by North Acton-based Torpedo Factory Group (TFG), the new K-array sound system is the culmination of several months of planning and design work, and now provides tightly focused audio coverage of the third floor atrium to tie in with the giant screen that is primarily used for corporate events and large scale presentations.

With unrestricted ceiling height to work with, TFG’s technical director Jason Brameld opted for a stereo system of substantially long Kobra column arrays flanking the screen, supported in the low frequencies by compact Rumble subwoofers built into the fascia at near floor level.

An initial acoustic survey of the atrium space was carried out by Dave Wooster of K-array’s UK distributor, 2B Heard, whose subsequent EASE mapping indicated that five Kobra-KK102 arrays each side would give the focused coverage of the floor and bleachers areas that the client required, while meeting the unusually low SPL constraint of just 68dB(A) specified by Arup – both measures designed for high intelligibility in the target areas while seeking to not disturb people in adjacent offices of the otherwise very open space.

“It’s a very challenging acoustics environment, essentially just a big glass box,” said TFG’s project and operations manager Mark Solomons. “There are some acoustic cylinders up in the ceiling that help to reduce some standing waves, but that’s it as far it goes with acoustic treatment. However because the system is so well focused, and due to the precise characteristics of the speakers themselves, we’ve been able to aim it directly at the flat floor area and up to the back of the bleachers up to the balcony – and the sound drops off dramatically as soon as you get past the balcony.”

The Solution

The five metre long Kobra left and right arrays are hung on custom brackets and fitted neatly within the steelwork of the building structure, and fade so completely into the surroundings as to be barely noticeable. “It’s a minimalist architectural approach,” explained Solomons, “since architects generally do not like loudspeakers, particularly rectangular or trapezoidal loudspeakers, but even they had to admit it wasn’t unsightly.”

The system is powered by a single Kommander-KA24 four channel amplifier housed in the comms room along with the IT equipment and the DSP that allows touch-screen switching of sources – mainly lavaliers and hand-held microphones – from the lectern position. “There’s very little corrective EQ,” said Solomons, “it didn’t need a lot doing to it so the EQ is mainly flat with just a slight adjustment at 350Hz.

“I’m always pleasantly surprised with K-array products, and in the other projects we’ve done they sound fantastic,” he said. “In theory this is an difficult environment acoustically, but here we always knew it was going to be challenging because we had constraints on sound level – but it’s worked really well, and I was pleased that we weren’t over-shadowed by the natural acoustics of the space. The client has a system that looks great and functions perfectly.

“The level of support from 2B Heard has been great. They always pick up the phone, they’re always happy to answer questions, or come and have a look at a venue and give advice – and they’re very pro-active in the after-sales period which is when problems tend to crop up. Of course as you’d expect, K-array products always work straight out of the box, but the important part is actually getting a system working and properly tuned. We always know that if we need support we can always rely on Dave to provide it.”

Mimecast’s Mark Barber conceded that people have reacted well to the new audio-visual system: “We’ve had a massively positive response from end users. We’ve never had anything like this before, and yesterday we had a presentation from our CEO in Lexington – it was up there on the screen in front of some 350 or so people. It was something that was much needed that we didn’t have before.

“The atrium was a big selling point of this new building. It is virtually a performance space, which was part of the reason why we went for it. We wanted a place where we could organise corporate events for the company and as our HQ is in Lexington, USA, the requirement is to do quarterly and monthly meetings for the company from a central London location. The K-array system is everything we expected.”

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