Opera. Concerts. Ballet. Theater. Virtually every type of performance depends on sound to create a satisfying experience for the audience. Yet simply installing speakers and electronics doesn't always guarantee the best performance.
At Bose, years of research and experience have taught us that the listening space itself is a critical factor to reproducing lifelike sound. So we use the space as part of the system and custom-engineer solutions that create a new standard of performance.
Case Study - Australian Institute of Sport (AIS)
Australia's Internationally acclaimed training ground for elite athletes
Location: ACT, Australia
Venue
In addition to high performance coaching, the AIS gives athletes access to world-leading sports science and sports medicine services, state-of-the-art sports facilities and opportunities for national and international competition. Two arenas, an indoor swimming centre, a gymnastics hall, soccer and hockey fields, multi-purpose indoor training facilities and a sport science building make up the famous AIS. The institute’s world class facilities and services are also used by touring international teams.
Challenge
Indoor Pool Complex: a highly reverberant venue with many hard surfaces including reflections from the pool’s own surface. The system was required to deliver quality music reproduction, clear paging, a remote side of pool mixing of microphone and playback sources at an intelligible level. Due to a number of competitions held in the complex throughout the year, audio levels were required to be heard over the spectators’ cheering. Furthermore, the speakers had to be able to sustain the effects of chlorine and the damp environment.
Basketball Courts: the client required individual zone coverage of each of the five basketball court areas plus the ability to combine all five courts’ audio together for a total coverage from a single source.
Solution
Indoor Pool Complex: utilising Bose® Modeler® software, Bose was able to, with accuracy, determine speaker type, quantity and placement that would provide intelligibility and high performance in the highly reverberant environment. The system chosen combines a cluster of Panaray® 802® loudspeakers located centrally above the pool. The main rack consists of Bose 1800-VI, Bose 1600-VI and Bose M-2150 amplifiers with Panaray System Digital Controllers. The outer perimeter of the pool audio was generated by FreeSpace® Model 25 loudspeakers.
Basketball Courts: four of the courts have Panaray 402® loudspeakers set in pairs back-to-back. The main court has Panaray 802 loudspeakers set in 3, back-to-back. The system control is provided by Media Matrix X frame with Bose 1800-VI amplifiers fitted with equalisation cards.
Result
Indoor Pool Complex: the system’s performance is in accordance with the predictions made with the Bose Modeler® software. The intelligibility of speech is excellent for such a reverberant environment. This system has now been in place for over two years with no physical signs of chemical damage.
Basketball Courts: due to the design implemented, Bose was able to provide a superior sound solution for the five courts, using a variety of products in different cluster arrangements. The client’s requirements of sound coverage and reproduction were exceeded.
