Colour Below, Sound All Around
Pro Audio Systems recently installed the audio infrastructure at Bristol International Airport, the latest site in the ongoing World Duty Free ‘Contentainment’ programme. Due to the unusual layout of the store a new ‘in the round’ stage design was required, located below a ‘chandelier’ comprising LCD screens and also housing a 360-degree coverage audio system.Pro Audio Systems were also tasked with providing the stage which had to be both eye-catching and portable. The resultant design, eight feet in diameter and constructed using two layers of high strength transparent 12mm polycarbonate material, was constructed entirely in-house and provided a very colourful and distinctive central location for the performers. Underfloor lighting for the stage was provided by 48 LED boards, each with 64 full colour LEDs, remotely controlled from front of house via DMX512 in 3 channel mode (RGB), using a total of 144 control channels. Each section can be run separately if required, just requiring power & data.
The multi-zone audio system utilised Meyer Sound equipment throughout and included one of the first uses in the UK of the brand new UP-4XP Ultra Compact loudspeaker, with several mounted around the top and bottom edges of the ‘chandelier’, providing coverage both at floor level and on the balcony above. Other Meyer Sound products included numerous MM-4 miniature loudspeakers, colour-matched to the decor and a single M-1D subwoofer.
Head of the World Duty Free Contentainment programme Sue Gosling said, ‘This was a challenging location but our technical and creative partners pulled off a real tour de force here. Our goal is to constantly evolve the airport retail experience and this vision is realised through the knowledge, imagination and expertise of the people who work with us, never demonstrated better than in this project’.
