The newly opened Body Action Gym in Johannesburg, South Africa, a high-end fitness/wellness facility with a large weight training space, an array of dedicated aerobic, yoga, Pilates, HIIT and spinning studios, an open-air basketball court, and more, is equipped with an elaborate audio design utilizing Martin Audio BlacklineX loudspeakers.
John Greaves, audio specialist at Martin Audio distributor Audiosure, explains, “We were trying to achieve an extremely high-quality, distributed, multi-zone, multi-purpose, state-of-the-art audio solution which would allow each area of the gym to have audio functioning either independently or collectively, at the touch of a button.”
The Audiosure team worked closely with Craig Harris and Mark Bracco from Audiobility, specialists in control automation, on the project. They needed to be cognizant of the fact that the gym sits across three floors of a multi-story building that’s shared with corporate offices, with the audio system needing to deliver club-level sound when guest DJs were playing while at the same time leaving the occupants of the offices above free from disturbance.
“Structural transference was the gym’s biggest concern, so we needed to make sure that we isolated the speakers and subwoofers from any concrete surfaces,” Greaves adds. “This was achieved with the use of rubber mounts and steel suspension rope, and helped prevent any vibrations from being transferred through the concrete to the adjacent floors.
The main gym area utilizes 16 Blackline X8s mounted to custom column clamps as well as six Blackline X118 subwoofers suspended from a concrete slab, while each of the studios are equipped with a pair of compact, powered Blackline XP12s, pole mounted from the ceiling and utilizing the aforementioned rubber mounts. Control and processing are handled with a dedicated Martin Audio DX0.5 loudspeaker management system.
The surrounding areas, including the indoor boxing area, outdoor CrossFit section, outdoor running track and basketball court and kids’ areas, were also equipped with sound, and careful selection of appropriate wireless microphones — from beltpack transmitters to headset unitss for the trainers — was applied, while similar attention to detail was given to the lighting.
“We are big fans of Blackline X because it offers exceptional sound quality at an affordable price, it offers very neat mounting hardware and an aesthetically pleasing enclosure design,” Greaves concludes. “The Blackline X powered enclosures are wonderful because of their built-in DSP, limiters and again the same points as above. It was a compelling solution because the Blackline X8s are small and neat enough to be distributed all around the venue, while being impressive enough to cover the space effectively, with great-sounding audio.”
