The Antwerp Zoo, built in 1843 in Antwerp, Belgium, is the oldest animal park in Belgium, and one of the oldest in world.
Opened in 1911, the aquarium is located in a cave-like space under a Greek Temple in the southwestern corner of the zoo. Largely unchanged since it opened, the space had recently begun to show wear and tear due to the constant exposure to moisture and salt water.
As a result, the zoo embarked upon a complete renovation of the aquarium that included restoring the much of the stone and marble surfaces, replacing the rubber floor with an authentic stone floor and modernizing the tanks themselves.
As part of the project, the restoration committee decided it was also time to address the acoustic issues of the main visitor hall. The large rectangular room is roughly 130 x 55 feet and features an abundance of flat surfaces, marble archways and a 20-foot ceiling. Until now, no sound system was present.
With this new system the Zoo wants to create special effects for the visitor by playing 4 channel audio that will give the impression of sound rolling as a wave through the room. The Aquarium building will also be used for education and presentations.
Belgium-based COMMpunt bvba, a professional audio distributor that also provides design and integration support services, was hired to design and install, together with the electrical contractor, a new sound reinforcement system for the cavernous space.
“Between the size of the room and the hard, flat surfaces, we knew we needed a system that could provide controlled directivity but also withstand the humidity that comes with the aquarium environment,” explains ir. Michaël Rossignol, COMMpunt co-owner. “One Systems products came to mind immediately – they are completely weather proof and provide the audio quality and control the system required.”
Rossignol ultimately specified 13 pcs. of One Systems 106IM/100 loudspeakers, creating a distributed system that evenly covers the visitor viewing area with minimal overlap between zones. The loudspeakers, hung at 20-degree angles approximately 14 feet off the ground, are mounted with optional PT-10 bracket at the top of set-back archways that flank both sides of the hall. Complete coverage was ensured with placement of the enclosures in every other of the 26 archways. All loudspeakers and brackets were painted in the same color as the walls.
The One Systems 106IM was designed to provide high acoustic output, superb intelligibility and IP 56-rated direct-weather performance making them ideal for acoustic spaces like the aquarium. The 106IM design is unique in that it uti¬lizes a true compression driver coupled to a constant-directivity horn that provides a 100 degree horizontal by 70 degrees vertical coverage pattern.
The 106IM’s combination of the high-ef¬ficiency horn-loaded compression driver and an extra-large 1.75-inch (44.33 mm) voice coil design in the 6-inch (152 mm) woofer yields superior system intelligibility, vocal range in¬tegrity and added musical definition.
The aquarium system is powered by a Bosch 4-channel PLM-4P125 PLENA matrix amplifier which provides remote control and monitoring via the Plena Matrix app running on an iPad. Mixing and routing is done with the new Apart Audiocontrol 12.8. The COMMpunt team also installed a Sennheiser XSW 35 Wireless microphone system utilized for custom tours and educational presentations.
“The visitor hall at the aquarium recently opened to rave reviews from the public and the renovation committee,” concludes Rossignol. “The audio quality and clarity is exceptional in the hall. Everyone is extremely pleased with the new system.”
One Systems