Ikea has opened its second store in the Korean city of Goyang, where the world’s largest furniture retailer has invested more than ₩300bn in the construction of the 164,000-sq-m building. As part of its plans to operate six stores in Korea by 2020, the location of the Goyang store was chosen to give the people of Seoul and the northern metropolitan area more convenient access to Ikea.

Inter-M Corporation was appointed to provide the background music and announcement system for the new store. Handling design, supply and commissioning directly, Inter-M used the services of Samjin Elex to assist with installation. For the very high ceiling height of the warehouse-style store, Byoung Dock Choi from Inter-M’s SI Team chose Community pendant loudspeakers and a demonstration assured Ikea of the sound level and audio quality the system would provide. In addition to their acoustic performance, the Community pendant loudspeakers also provided an aesthetic solution.

The system designed by Inter-M uses a combination of Community’s DP6 and DP8 two-way, high-output pendant loudspeakers. The coaxial six and 8-inch designs use separate magnets for the LF and compression HF drivers, giving reduced distortion and industry-leading sensitivity. In total, the system uses 105 DP6 and 62 DP8 loudspeakers, driven by Inter-M DPA Series amplifiers. The multi-zone system uses Inter-M 7000 Series electronics throughout, providing input, control, monitoring and zoning.

Inter-M’s carefully calculated design took advantage of the efficiency and wide coverage angle of the Community loudspeakers and achieved an even coverage of 80~85dB. This comfortably exceeded the required specification and met Ikea’s requirements for clear announcements with quality background music.