R2W's Dallas office was tapped to handle the design and installation of a new sound system for the atrium as well as other system required by the renovation.
The renovation consisted of gutting the existing lobby of the 1,606 room hotel and creating a new 11 story high atrium that features a prominent water element and new Media Grill + Bar. The 11,000 square foot space required an unobtrusive, distributed sound system for music playback in the area.
The hotel design team placed 25 custom light fixtures throughout the area and allocated space within the fixtures for loudspeakers.
"Our job was to come up with a system that would provide the audio quality that the hotel required while working within the space limits we were given," explains Jim Nelson, R2W senior engineer. "I thought of Tannoy immediately. They have always been very helpful in creating custom audio solutions and the sound quality of their components is terrific."
The custom light fixtures are square shaped pillars, roughly six feet high. The lower two-thirds of the pillar are illuminated and the top of the box is capped with a LED fixture aimed upward. The area allocated for the speakers falls between the light and the cap, providing a very compact space approximately 6" high by 12" wide and 12" deep.
"It was a clever way to distribute sound throughout the atrium very unobtrusively," adds Steve Reed, senior account manager at R2W. "Conduit was run under the floor to each location for the lights making it easy to add in the wiring that the audio system required at the same time."
After evaluating their options Nelson and Reed determined that the Tannoy 4" Dual Concentric driver (4DC Contractor Kit) would be the best solution.
Because the lighting fixtures were being custom built, Nelson and Reed also worked with the lighting designer to make sure that the product would not only work, but also fit. Ultimately two 4" drivers were installed in each fixture.
"We built the drivers into each fixture and enclosed them with an attractive grill around all four sides of the pillar," Nelson explains. "You wouldn't even know they were there except for the music which was exactly what the hotel wanted."
(Jim Evans)
