The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) West Building Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina, has had Martin Audio’s Adorn pendant loudspeakers installed by by RMB Audio.
With architectural and art curator approval needed, the Adorn ACP-55T was chosenfor their 150° conical coverage (117Hz to 20kHz ± 3dB, -10dB @73Hz) – and off-white finish to matched the ceiling.
The two-way ACP-55T was specifically designed for background and foreground applications requiring premium performance and cost competitiveness in spaces with open ceiling architecture such as this. Approval was granted after review.
The loudspeakers – 16 in all – are paired to cover the wall-to-wall open gallery space. Three areas are zoned for audio isolation to control the social gathering adjacent to art exhibitions. The ACP-55T pendants were hung at 15ft across three selected zones in the gallery to mitigate sound leakage into other areas.
‘Well-articulated speech is the most critical parameter for the sound system application and Martin Audio ACP-55T pendants deliver high sound pressure level for speech and background music for daily operation,’ Cannady says.
The Martin Audio partners had reviewed there options carefully but Cannady felt that the choice was obvious. ‘I knew the project needed a 150° cabinet spaced symmetrically across the gallery,’ he says. ‘Ceiling units could not be considered in these circumstances.’
The installation coincides with the 12th anniversary of NCMA’s Thomas Phifer–designed West Building, which is home of the People’s Collection. It is the first sound system to be permanently installed in the gallery. Previously, mobile carts would be delivered to the space, and without the ceiling elevation, clarity was lost.
The building’s 2010 completion marked not only an award-winning architectural achievement in museum design but also a breakout project for New York City-based Thomas Phifer and Partners.
The continuous ceiling sky light design brings natural light to the exhibits. The continual skylight introduced the challenge to examine how sound can be introduced into the space that is intelligible coverage for the gallery and blending into the ceiling vaulted lighting.
‘Adding these pendant speakers to our popular Adorn range has proved to be a winner,’ says Martin Audio Director of Marketing, James King. ‘In retail spaces and venues with open ceiling architecture, specifiers are coming to realise that not only do they meet the aesthetic requirement, but sonically they also provide consistent all-round coverage with absolute clarity, due to their wide-dispersion pattern.’
‘If you didn’t know where to look for [the loudspeakers] you simply wouldn’t see them,’ Cannady confirms. ‘‘The Adorn pendant design blends into the gallery ceiling; it does not distract the museum attendees and most significantly, spoken word is highly intelligible in the large space.’
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