Among North America’s largest museum planning, design and fabrication firms, the Ohio-based Roto Group has installed a Genelec loudspeaker ecosystem throughout its Prototype Museum, an experimental museum and event venue designed to explore new forms of immersive storytelling, interactive media and visitor engagement.
Located in Columbus, Ohio, the museum has allowed Roto designers, engineers, software developers and creative teams to develop and refine immersive installations in a real-world environment before applying those concepts to client projects. Key to the site’s operation is its immersive audio environment, incorporating a combination of Genelec 8030C and 8050B studio monitors, 4430A Smart IP Installation Speakers, 4436A Smart IP Installation Pendant Speakers and 7050C Active Studio Subwoofers.
Prototype was conceived as a highly flexible and continuously evolving environment, for which Roto designed deliver studio-quality sound while with sufficient adaptability to accommodate constantly changing exhibits and room configurations.
‘One of our ambitions from the beginning was to bring studio-level audio quality to every visitor experience,’ says Roto Group founder and CEO, Joseph Wisne. ‘When sound designers and composers create content, they’re monitoring it in carefully controlled environments. We wanted visitors to hear that same mix – not a version coloured by reflections from distant speakers mounted in the corners of a room. Genelec allowed us to place the sound exactly where the audience is and deliver the experience the creators intended.’
The museum’s galleries feature a wide range of interactive exhibits incorporating custom soundtracks, visitor-generated music, game audio, ambient soundscapes and multichannel immersive content. One installation employs 24 Genelec Smart IP loudspeakers suspended throughout a mirrored 2,500sq-ft gallery, creating an enveloping audio environment despite the highly reflective surfaces.
According to Wisne, Genelec’s combination of sound quality, installation flexibility and network connectivity made the loudspeakers a natural fit for the project. ‘The Smart IP products were a game changer for us,’ he explains. ‘In many cases, all we need is a single Cat6 network cable. We can move a loudspeaker, reconnect it to the network and immediately have access to it. That portability is incredibly valuable in a museum built around experimentation and change.’
Audio is distributed throughout the facility over a Dante network, allowing museum staff to route content to any gallery or event space while maintaining consistent audio. In addition to its ability to achieve the required audio standard, the Genelec platform simplifies operation for technical staff and ensures visitors experience the same high-quality sound regardless of where they are within the museum.
‘Consistency is critical,’ Wisne says. ‘We don’t want our technical team constantly adjusting EQs or trying to compensate for different loudspeaker systems. We do the mix in the studio, and that’s the sound we want visitors to hear. Genelec gives us that consistency while making the system incredibly easy to manage.’
Alongside museum operations, the facility regularly hosts corporate events, receptions, private functions, educational programnes and immersive experiences. Through centralised network control, staff can adapt audio content to suit each event while preserving the museum’s signature multisensory experience.
Wisne also credits Genelec’s support team for helping Roto successfully implement the system: ‘Genelec’s team understood that this wasn’t a typical cinema or home theatre project,’ he said. ‘These are unique architectural environments with constantly changing needs. Theis guidance helped us engineer the system correctly from the beginning, and the results exceeded our expectations. The sound quality, reliability and flexibility have all been outstanding.’
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