Since opening in 1913, the NHM's mandate has been to preserve, protect and research those artifacts, and to curate ever more immersive exhibitions in an effort to inspire "wonder, discovery and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds" in visitors. With the 2013 addition of The Otis Booth Pavilion, which features a cutting edge AV system that relies heavily on Tannoy's QFlex, VLS and CMS Series loudspeakers, the NHM has created a space that will allow them to do so more effectively than ever before.
Made possible by a $13m gift from the Otis Booth Foundation and designed by CO Architects, the construction of the pavilion was part of a comprehensive, decade long, $135m renovation that transformed the NHM into an indoor and outdoor learning hub. In addition to serving as an entryway and re-orienting the Museum toward L.A.'s Exposition Boulevard and a new 3.5-acre Nature Garden, the two-level space also functions as a venue for a variety of events and presentations.
Designed by Waveguide Consulting Inc. and installed by Sound Image Inc. (SI), the audio system inhabiting the Pavilion includes a pair of Tannoy QFlex 32 digitally steerable, multi-channel arrays, two VLS 30 passive column arrays and five CMS 601DC Dual Concentric in-ceiling loudspeakers for reinforcement of speech and program audio.
"We were asked to provide an AV system that would support a gigantic LED video wall and the entryway to the Museum," says Michael Di Santo, Waveguide's LA-based senior project consultant. "It's an everyday entry to the Museum, but they also use it for special events, so we designed an audio system they could use for presentations on either the upper deck or lower level."
Constructed almost entirely of 9x11-foot glass panes, the Pavilion is an extremely challenging space acoustically. "Essentially it's a six-storey glass cube with a concrete floor," says Jerry Fleury, SI's Project Manager on the install, "and there are two different presets, so, if someone is presenting from upstairs or downstairs, they can switch from one preset to the other between or during events."
Waveguide chose Tannoy's QFlex and VLS arrays in order to maximize the Museum's ability to control the sound easily and effectively. "We evaluated several speaker options for this challenging acoustical environment and determined the QFlex line arrays would be a good fit," Di Santo explains. "We looked at the software and the ease of setup and I contacted our engineers and said, Could we look into this? In the end, we chose QFlex because of their flexibility."
(Jim Evans)
