K-array and Innosonix for Browns Fashion
- Details
Browns Fashion offers an unrivalled, tactile in-person experience that flies in the face of the currently obsessive trend for instant online click-and-ship gratification. Blending exceptional service with creativity and technology, the Browns ethos is personified in the recently opened Dimorestudio-designed flagship boutique at 39 Brook Street in the heart of London’s Mayfair.
Following extensive construction work which saw the Grade II listed building gutted and completely renovated, a contract was awarded to South Hampstead-based AT&C Professional System to design and install a fully networked, high specification audio system throughout every room. The brief was unambiguously clear: “We want the best sound quality possible – and we don’t want to see it.”
“Given that we couldn’t install speakers onto any of the walls or ceilings due to the building’s listed status, which also restricted the size and shape, that considerably narrowed the field when it came to selecting a suitable loudspeaker supplier,” explained AT&C business development manager Alan Smith.
To accommodate the limitations on speaker placement a sophisticated technological solution was chosen that would provide tightly controlled dispersion from minimally sized enclosures.
That led to K-array. “We got in touch with K-array’s UK distributor 2B Heard and, aided by director Dave Wooster’s acoustic modelling, drew up a specification based around large numbers of Lyzard low profile line arrays.
“In terms of aesthetics and answering the brief for our new flagship Browns Brook Street, AT&C successfully delivered. We are also incredibly impressed with the audio quality and ease of use as well as the delivery of a flexible events sound system that allows for on and off-site DJ set up.”
Based on positional drawings and initial acoustic predictions, Wooster specified a selection of K-array speakers that would fit the impossibly small physical spaces from the Lyzard, Truffle and Rumble sub-compact ranges.
“While we able to demonstrate quite easily that the coverage and SPL would be exactly as required, the designers insisted that we integrate most of the speakers into their railing structures, either forward facing or upward facing for reflection. Subwoofers were hidden into floor vents as again no visible speakers were permitted,” explained Wooster.
Every one of the 26 individually Extron-controlled zones, including the changing rooms, enjoys the same sound quality from Browns’ own specially curated playlists, produced by the 22 Lyzard-KZ1XP mini point source and 72 Lyzard-KZ14 ultra-miniature line array loudspeakers. These are supplemented by 17 Truffle-KTR24 compact subwoofers and 44 Rumble-KU44 compact subwoofers.
Distributing audio to so many loudspeakers and to a labyrinth of discrete spaces simultaneously required a creative power amplification infrastructure, which was only made possible by multi-channel intelligent amplifiers from Innosonix, another of 2B Heard’s UK distributed brands.
A spokesperson from Browns confirmed that the K-array and Innosonix system more than fits the bill: “In terms of aesthetics and answering the brief for our new flagship Browns Brook Street, AT&C successfully delivered. We are also incredibly impressed with the audio quality and ease of use as well as the delivery of a flexible events sound system that allows for on and off-site DJ set up.”
