The Powersoft Unica amplification platform and Mover transducers are at the heart of creating an audio experience for the newest site of Treetop Adventure Golf, known for its mini golf courses, located in Newcastle, England.
The new site consists of two jungle-themed 18-hole courses, one focusing on the natural world and the other on an ancient temple structure. Full Production, the integration firm on the project, worked with sound designer Dan Roncoroni to develop an audio system that would be able to stand alone with no operator intervention for 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Treetop Adventure Golf as a whole was an excellent client — there was no real traditional briefing, but a much more collaborative process where the system was designed to meet the company’s ambitions for new audio content, which was created with the capabilities of the system in mind,” says Roncoroni.
The aim of the install was to tell a story for visitors playing mini golf, which is “exceptionally hard to do so without considering the audio system at the inception,” Roncoroni notes. “With a huge variance in visitor demographics, and hundreds of visitors a day, ensuring that all voice lines are intelligible in all circumstances, and that the site is well balanced and not cacophonous, is vital.”
Multiple loudspeakers are hidden at each hole with the goal of none of them being visible to guests. Players trigger audio content by succeeding or failing their putts on each hole, while there is a continual soundscape that runs in the background.
Sixteen Unica 8M amplifiers deliver the audio power to the loudspeakers, all providing eight channels each. Having very limited rack space, Roncoroni says he chose Unica primarily for its power density. “The design relied on nearly every loudspeaker being individually amplified; therefore, having eight channels of amplification with power sharing in 1U was invaluable,” he explains.
Another reason for the selection, he adds, was the Powersoft Cloud for remote monitoring: “There are no dedicated technical staff on site and Powersoft Cloud allows us to try and be proactive with servicing and fault finding.”
During the install process, electrical works were still underway, which is why Roncoroni thinks the testing and verification functions utilizing PoE++ were key. “Being able to test loudspeakers with only the switch powered, with no mains to the amps, was invaluable,” he says. Unica’s PoE input allows keeping the network ports and amplifier logic circuitry powered in case of mains loss, ensuring a short wake-up time when power is restored.
Roncoroni also chose to implement Mover low-frequency inertial-drive haptic transducers in an area that needed to replicate the sound and feel of a collapsing structure. There wasn’t enough ceiling height to mount a large subwoofer, and there were also concerns about noise complaints from neighboring units. “Mover solves both of those problems while arguably being far more effective than any traditional subwoofer,” he states.
The amplifiers drive 68 EM Acoustics EMS-41, 13 EMS-51, five EMS-61 and four EMS-81X passive loudspeakers, 14 EM Acoustics S-48 VLF installation subwoofers, two QSC AD-CTW ceiling loudspeakers, 24 QSC AD-P4TB pendant loudspeakers and seven AD-P.SUB-B pendant subwoofers, as well as two M2 Mac Minis, running QLab and PanLab plugins, two RME Digiface Dance and one TiMax SoundHub 32-S.
On the golf course, each loudspeaker is individually amplified, with the Unica amplifiers located in a single 42U rack alongside the lighting and show control equipment rack. “The audio system is relatively simple,” says Roncoroni. “Each 18-hole course is run from a Mac Mini running QLab. The Mac Minis output content via Dante, through the RME units, either directly to an amplifier or via the TiMax for spatial audio.” The content is triggered via OSC commands from the Pharos lighting system that processes the output from sensors on each golf hole to trigger win, lose or ambient content.
