The Cambridge communications hub of a leading providers of technology to the oil and gas industry is the setting for a new audiovisual system installed by A/V integrator Ccomm using loud speaker systems from K-array and Innosonix multichannel amplifiers.

Both brands are distributed in the UK by Shefford-based 2B Heard, and it was to the company’s Technical Director Dave Wooster that Ccomm turned for assistance in specifying the audio system.

‘Our client wanted to create a large multi-purpose open space with a combination of meeting rooms, a space for Town Hall meetings, and collaborations,’ says Ccomm Project Manager, Andrew Giles. ‘Primarily it’s a data sharing room, in which participants are able to present a variety of content – that might be charts, graphs, or scientific data – and share that onto a big UniSee video wall. Because the client was effectively converting the space from one usage to another, we asked Dave to submit proposals for a high performance audio system, working from our detailed dimensional drawings.

Ccomm embarked on a major transformation of the scientific laboratory space into an open-plan area that could be used for meetings, presentations and for marketing purposes, equipped with a sound system that would do justice to all activities. A major challenge was a vaulted ceiling that creates acoustically disruptive reflections. ‘We decided that acoustic treatment was essential, and so we installed special cut-to-shape acoustic panels in the ceiling to cut down the reverberation time,’ Giles says.

The audiovisual system centres on a 6m x 3m Barco touchscreen video wall with Viper-KV52 passive line arrays and Rumble-KU26 subwoofers installed behind acoustic grilles on either side.

Additional sound reinforcement mounted on the metal columns extends sound coverage evenly around the 100-capacity room. The loudspeakera are driven by a 32-channel Innosonix MA32-D amplifier, whose Dante-enabled inputs can be assigned to any group of outputs.

‘Not only did the simplicity of a single box cut down on what would otherwise have been a huge amount of kit installed behind the video wall, it also reduces the amount of heat generated,’ says Ccomm Head of Engineering, Richard Bellingham.

‘I would describe the sound as transparent, but rock-solid at the same time,’ Giles reports. ‘I In addition, the level of control provided by the Innosonix amplification was exceptionally useful, and enabled us to precisely tune the room as part of an acoustically treated space.

‘The headroom and dynamics are particularly impressive,’ he adds. ‘One thing that stands out is how silent the noise floor is, which encourages the dynamics of the sound. It has totally transformed the space and the use of it, so much so that we’ve already been asked to go in and do further work.’