With the assistance of Morimoto Naniwa Sound Projects Co., Ltd. of Tokyo, Verdi Viale supplied each studio with its own powerful sound playback and instructor reinforcement system. Each studio uses One Systems 108im loudspeakers powered by a four-channel Ashly nX4004 four-channel programmable output amplifier.
"The main purpose of the system is to allow for background music or for program music with instructor reinforcement," explained Masaki Morimoto, co-owner of Morimoto Naniwa Sound Projects, who, along with Makoto Akashi, helped select the sound reinforcement products, specified their placement, and tuned the installed system.
"Most of the facility is surrounded by glass walls, which led to long reverberation times. Of course, intelligibility was very important, and it was necessary to maintain perfect, undistorted fidelity. Ashly amplifiers are excellent in this regard, and Ashly's reliability would allow Verdi Viale to operate without interruption."
Kazuhiko Hosoi, president of S and A Planning Co., oversaw the installation of the system. A big part of Hosoi's job was making sure the system blended invisibly into Verdi Viale's sleek interior design. "This aspect of the job is very important in Japan," Morimoto explained. "There is a premium placed on making sure everything in the interior design is consistent, and Mr. Hosoi has a lot of experience making sound and video systems work with the interior designs of restaurants and retail stores."
Within each of the three separate studios, a four-channel Ashly nX4004 amplifier delivers 400W each to four One Systems 108im full-range loudspeakers. "The large-format compression driver of the 108im contributes to the high intelligibility of the system despite the reverberant character of the glass walls," Morimoto said. "And the one-to-one pairing of loudspeakers with amplifier channels allows the system to operate with plenty of headroom for undistorted playback."
(Jim Evans)
