Based in the Norwegian coastal city of Molde, family-owned manufacturer Brunvoll produces thrusters for advanced sea-faring vessels. After almost 104 years in business, the company has completed a new $30 million, 10,000m2 headquarters after its previous home was split in two by Route E39.
A suspended walkway was added to bridge administration and production facilities, along with an acoustically challenging new multi-purpose auditorium, outfitted with Renkus-Heinz.
“The challenge is, as always, to get direct sound from the loudspeakers to the listener without exciting the acoustics in the room too much,” observes Jo Tore Bæverfjord, of Molde Forum AS, the company that designed, supplied and installed the project. He adds, “For a project such as this, the loudspeakers need to be very good, and in particular the beam-steering needs to be very good.”
Wide and shallow, the 400 seat capacity room is interspersed with tall supporting columns, between two of which is a stage measuring approximately 14 x 10-foot (4m x 3m). Behind the stage, floor-to-ceiling windows offer a grand view, while the stage itself is topped with a 14 x 8-foot (4.3m x 2.4m) LED screen.
“When we started with the project we saw that the room has big columns, large windows and a balcony with glass in front, so all of those factors made for more of a challenge. But it’s not really so much of a challenge for Renkus-Heinz; it’s just a matter of identifying where to put the speakers and optimizing the beam-steering to minimize reflections. Even for this space, we installed two IC Live columns and two small loudspeakers on each side as fills – it was no more complex than that.”
The loudspeakers in question are Iconyx ICL-R arrays, two of which are fixed to the columns that flank the stage. Custom brackets have been created to bring the arrays forward approximately 60cm (23.62-inches), placing them in line with the screen. “We chose a touring model from the IC Live range because it has an integrated rear pipe, which allowed us to use two clamps for the mounting, just as we do in live productions,” says Bæverfjord. “It made the installation very easy and it’s delivered a nice balance between the pictures on the screen and the sound in the room.”
Renkus-Heinz RHAON II software was used to optimize beam steering performance and optimization. Support for the IC Live arrays is delivered via two wall-mounted CF81-2 enclosures serving the room’s left and right wings. Additional low-end comes courtesy of a pair of CF15S-5R subs. At the rear of the room, under-balcony reinforcement is provided by Martin Audio C4.8T ceiling speakers, while control is from an Allen & Heath IDR8 matrix mixer with Crestron touch-screens.
“When you walk into a room and there are many columns and lots of glass, there’s nothing that you can do about that,” says Bæverfjord, “but I must say that Renkus-Heinz beam-steering speakers are very easy to work with and so these challenges do not present a big problem. You could make it all much more complicated and achieve worse results.”
Instead, the simple effectiveness of the design has already made a big impression with Brunvoll. Noting the prestige of the project, Bæverfjord concludes, “The opening event included speeches, video playback and live music – and greetings from the Prime Minister via the LED screen. It was a big moment, but we didn’t have to do anything – they ran it all by themselves. The Brunvoll IT staff managed the production on their own! This is a very prestigious project for us and I am very proud.”