Vytautas the Great War Museum in Kaunas, one of Lithuania’s oldest museums and offering guided tours and education programs, recently upgraded its visitor experience with ICONYX ICLive X Series beam-steering arrays from Renkus-Heinz.
While visually striking, the museum’s 1930s Art Deco style and early functionalism architecture create a highly reflective interior with challenging acoustics. Museum management contacted local AV integration firm Audiotonas to design and install a new loudspeaker system with the top priority of significantly increasing sound quality, coverage and spoken-word intelligibility.
The museum’s older loudspeaker system did not deliver the sound quality and coverage needed. Vytautas Stasiukaitis, head of sales for Audiotonas, explains that the interior has many audio-reflective surfaces, including glass displays, hard walls, floors and ceilings.
“The old sound system was a four-speaker, point-source design, which was not well-suited for the venue,” Stasiukaitis says. “After we understood what they wanted to accomplish, we demonstrated a set of Renkus-Heinz ICLive X arrays on-site, and the client was immediately impressed with what the system could do.”
Measuring 9.5 inches wide, the small-footprint ICLive X Series arrays incorporate multi-channel class-D digital amplifiers with advanced DSP engines to control every array element with added precision. In addition to tours, the museum hosts special events including commemorations, presentations and honor ceremonies. For these more extensive uses, flexibility and speech intelligibility are paramount.
“Audience size for events can range from 20 to well over 200; the system needs to deliver an immersive experience for the whole audience no matter the size,” added Stasiukaitis. “The ICLive X Series can be easily and quickly configured for any situation, and the client is very pleased with its flexibility.
“The acoustic properties of the venue are very challenging; without proper control, the reverberation is unbearable. The client is thrilled with how ICLive X is performing, and they love the straightforward usability of the RHAON software. ICLive X is the perfect sound solution for the museum.”
