The Four Domes Pavilion in Wrocław is home to more than 20,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, glasswork, ceramics, photography and conceptual artworks that curated by the Museum of Contemporary Art branch of Poland’s National Museum.
Also part of the conceptual exhibition space is an immersive multimedia component supported by the venue’s use of Renkus-Heinz audio systems.
The ‘see it, hear it, touch it’ multimedia screenings at the museum offer an integrated approach to experiencing art. Components considered traditional to art museums – framed paintings and statues – are augmented using projections, light and sound. The museum’s stated goal is ‘to use brilliant lighting, stunning imagery and powerful sound systems to awaken visitors’ senses’.
Key to that awakening is the use of immersive audio: ‘We have set up a Renkus-Heinz system in a room with sensors that trigger set experiences depending on where the listener is in the exhibition,’ explains Paweł Francuz, Product Manager at M.Ostrowski, the integration firm that supplied the system. ‘This provides an experience that connects with the same impact as the visual side of things.’
The installation includes 48 Renkus-Heinz CA81-RD point-source loudspeakers and two Renkus-Heinz CA118S-RD subwoofers. All components are painted white to blend in with the aesthetic of the exhibition space.
Using Renkus-Heinz in the installation allows the museum to exploit the power of the company’s technologies – in this case, the Complex Conic constant directivity waveguide design, coupled with full Dante networking capabilities, Rhaon II control and monitoring
In the Four Domes Pavilion, the loudspeakers are positioned on the sidewalls and the ceiling to create an dense grid of sound sources. The number of sources and the distance in between them was carefully designed to provide the expected immersive experience. ‘It’s a pure joy to be in the room where the Renkus-Heinz system is deployed,’ says Francuz. ‘High-quality sound and the best immersive experience was our goal. We achieved it thanks to the Renkus-Heinz offerings.’
With 50 loudspeakers in the room, environmental aspects had to be considered as well. The Renkus-Heinz loudspeakers have passive cooling and smart energy control that allows them to run silently while consuming very little to no energy on stand-by. One CA81-RD loudspeaker consumes as little as 3.5W on idle.
The SA amplifiers at the heart of Renkus-Heinz’ self-powered products use proprietary True Digital Class-D Technology, eliminating the need for negative feedback in the amplifier output and removing time-domain distortions associated with typical class-D topologies. The DSP amplifier converts the PCM input data directly to PWM data that drives the output stage. All of those benefits combine to offer the highest level of consistency, reliability, and audio quality to the end-user.
The active loudspeakers also use Audinate’s Dante for AV-over-IP connectivity, and are paired with a Barco Iosono 3D sound processor, which outputs 50 independent channels. Once installed, programming was completed through Dante and Renkus-Heinz’ Rhaon II software.
‘It’s rewarding when configuring the system takes a few clicks rather than hours of rewiring signals to the speakers, bearing in mind there are 50 independently working loudspeakers,’ Francuz says. ‘That saves a ton of time when commissioning the system. It allowed us to focus on the end-results from the moment the speakers were deployed.’
The result: a museum that can offer an immersive artistic experience to visitors: ‘Everybody is very pleased with the end results,’ Francuz reports. ‘This is a perfect example of bringing the creatives of the world together with A/V professionals and creating something truly extraordinary.’
More: www.renkus-heinz.com
