Essential Install | Acoustic Treatment & Tuning
proprietary multi-panel and scattering panels to optimise
acoustics, resonance, reverberation and reflection specific
to each project.
Stay Tuned
Getting a room to sound ‘right’ can also involve making
sure all the AV kit is doing what it should, how it should
and when it should. Experienced installer and audio
engineer, Wayne Hyde, now offering his services in this
area, comments: “In recent years, the pro audio market
has been able to offer manipulation of acoustic spaces
electronically. So as well as mechanically providing control
of absorption and diffusion through various surfaces
and panels and bass traps, spaces can select a sound
pre-set and present an audio character for the room.
This is through an application of multiple microphones
and loudspeakers; there’s a constant monitoring of the
acoustic space and then an acoustic character or sound
emanating from the loudspeakers.
“For example, a room that’s 4x4x4m could have a soft
reverb applied to that space that represents a room of
twice the size, or half the size. Being able to genuinely
convince people standing in a room that it sounds bigger,
or has hard surfaces or very different acoustics from the
way it looks can only be possible if the microphones,
processing and speakers are all high quality.”
Switching to the home, Wayne explains: “Now in the
residential CI world, we are seeing more and more of pro
audio brands getting their foot in the door. So it’s quite
possible that the technology I’ve mentioned may make its
way into our home cinema and media rooms, or even for
rooms where there is nothing happening at all.
“So, an installer might be able to sell a chill out, yoga or
meditation room that doesn’t offer music for example. A
room where you can control the ambience, reject outside
noise or the noise of appliances that might be whirring
away inside the house. A noise cancelling room if you like!
“Mixing up this technology with surround sound
processors could be interesting. First you lay the
foundation of the room acoustics with the ‘pseudo space’
as described above. Then, on top of that, the room
correction processing and EQ could possibly be kept to a
minimum because we’ve created a much better space for
the 3D audio surround sound movie mix.
“The possibilities are endless and exciting and even
though we really don’t want more loudspeaker companies
coming in to compete with the residential market, some will
however have technology that will push things forward. Then
there’s the steerable audio, but that’s for another feature in EI!”
Coming back to where we are right now with residential
installations, Wayne explains: “I offer a range of audio
calibration packages to installers who want to deliver the
right sound to their clients. Too often at the last stages of
a media room installation there just isn’t time to really sit
down with the client and discuss what they expect and what
they want to hear from their new surround sound system.
Or maybe the engineer who went on the audio courses is
stuck on a Lutron job on the other side of the city!
“Even once you’ve gathered that information from the
client, fully checking a surround sound package, wire by wire,
setting by setting can take a full day. I’ve a 50 point check list,
built up from working with home cinema and media rooms
since 2005. Very often, the fault behind a poor sounding room
is not because the calibration EQ wasn’t set to it’s optimum, it’s
nearly always an out-of-polarity speaker, wrongly left and right
the wrong way round, bass management set wildly wrong!
CineSound Calibration spots and rectifies these mistakes
and delivers the original promise to your client. The
process makes more time available for your engineers to
complete other aspects of the installation to a high level.”
More Information:
GIK Acoustics Europe +44(0)203 815 8608,
www.gikacoustics.co.uk
Anthem AV Solutions +44 (0)1359 270280,
www.anthemavs.co.uk
Hyde Audio Consultants +44 7904 585 246,
www.hydeaudioconsultants.com
CAS +44 (0)1952 580524, www.casacoustics.co.uk
Acoustic GRG +44 (0)1303 230944, www.acousticgrg.co.uk
Blue Frog Audio 07800 952 474, www.bluefrogaudio.co.uk
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