Llandudno Swimming Centre, designed as a fully equipped regional facility and fully compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act, has a 25m, eight-lane international short course main competition pool, with a moveable floor that allows its depth to be varied, a 20m four- lane pool for teaching and training, and seating for 427 spectators and 250 competitors.
Both pools, seating areas and changing rooms, are covered by a six-zone, digitally based audio paging and background music system, installed by system integrators Martin Dawes with the backup of Renkus-Heinz and Biamp UK distributors Polar Audio.
Compact, waterproofed Renkus-Heinz PNX61 dual 6-inch/1inch HF loudspeakers provide high-directivity coverage of the pool and seating areas. The choice of loudspeakers was dictated by the demand for high intelligibility and volume from compact cabinets, with predictable directivity that would help minimise reverberation from the multiplicity of hard roof and wall surfaces in the pool areas. The Complex Conic horn of the Renkus-Heinz PNX61 - powered by Biamp eight-channel 200W amplifiers - met those requirements, and was available in a weatherised version.
"Along with the inherent quality of the product, they amounted to the best solution at the right price," comments Paul Berry of Martin Dawes, who installed the entire audio project with the backup of Polar Audio project manager Simon Druce. Martin Dawes had tendered for the project when planning commenced in 2004.
Paul Berry comments, "The brief was to provide PA facilities for various zones within the complex. When our proposal was accepted three years later we re-appraised it to accommodate newer technology. Simon Druce had already proposed Renkus-Heinz PNX61 loudspeakers for the main pool areas, with a Biamp Audiaflex for signal routing and processing, and we added the new Biamp NPS1 network paging station, with Da Vinci PC based software as the user front end, which integrates seamlessly with Audiaflex DSP audio distribution over CobraNet."
(Jim Evans)
