When premium quality sound systems are required for to perform in a nautical environment, a unique set of challenges presents itself to the nautical A/V systems integrator alongside the routine considerations of exposure to salt water, humidity and constant motion. Charles Bradley, CEO of Superyacht AV and seasoned in the field of high-end audiovisual integration, recently faced exactly these challenges on a customer’s Sunseeker superyacht.
Looking to his three decades of experience behind a mixing console for major recording artists worldwide expertise and adding the technology offered by K-array, Bradley installed K-array loudspeaker systems in the boat’s master cabin, VIP suite, saloon and helm that redefine luxury audio on the high seas.
The new class-leading 116 Sunseeker is designed around an ultra-stylish modern interior and open-plan layout – and therein lay the major acoustical challenges for Bradley and his team of audio engineers. Necessarily from an aesthetic standpoint, and as is often the case for this kind of ultra high-end installation, the brief called for all the audio equipment to be completely hidden away from sight.
‘The challenges on boats of this kind are numerous,’ Bradley says. ‘You can never put a speaker where you want – there’s always something else there, like air conditioning or lighting. When you pull a deckhead panel down there is literally no space left for speakers. Fortunately, with K-array’s small sizes and slim profiles we did have a lot more scope than would have been possible with other brands.’
Bradley’s team worked with the owner and the boatyard in the early stages of the build to create bespoke wooden loudspeaker enclosures and panels to be mounted in the walls and ceilings, and then covered with a range of décor-matching fabrics to act as acoustically transparent speaker cloth.
‘Although this is the third boat we’ve done for the same owner, it’s the first to use K-array products,’ Bradlry says. ‘And the reason we chose them is because we were super impressed by the audio system at Soho House in Chicago, and I thought this could be a great solution for the boats.
‘I got in touch with the UK distributor 2B Heard and realised that I knew Dave Wooster from previous encounters in the concert touring world. So, we specified the job and Dave helped out with some initial acoustic simulations.’
There are, in fact, numerous K-array speakers in locations all over the luxury Sunseeker Skye, but it is difficult to see any of them. Starting in the flybridge, the open upper helm station above the main deck, a pair of Lyzard-KZ14 miniature arrays in a custom RAL finish are located over the helm position behind custom grilles and supported on the low end by three Rumble-KU210 dual 10-inch subwoofers in custom made gel washed enclosures located under the seating areas.
All outside areas are open to the elements and, therefore, all the loudspeakers have to be marine grade rated up to IP64, and constructed from stainless steel with weather-treated cones and stainless fixings throughout, And although everything on the boat is climate controlled, it is still a very harsh environment with all that that entails such as extreme exposure to salt and humidity.
In the cockpit a Rumble-KU210 subwoofer provides low and sub-frequency support for Monitor Audio speakers, again mounted inside custom made gel washed boxes located under the seating areas.
In the bow there are a further three Rumble-KU210 subwoofers in custom enclosures under the seating, while for the bow cinema – which is a removable system using the existing Rumble-KU210s on the bow and incorporating a rear projection screen in custom mount – features Kayman-KY102 line arrays as main LCR sources with Vyper-KV25 line arrays on rear surround and Rumble-KU44 subwoofers for rear sub frequency effects.
‘Sound travels around a boat in unpredictable ways,’ Bradley warns. ‘There are voids and conduits and air conducting vents that allow unexpected and unwanted sound transmission to occur between quite remote locations. To add to the complications, everything in a boat rattles – which is why it’s so important to isolate those troublesome frequencies and tune each room individually and carefully.
‘Very few boat builders or even marine A/V companies understand how to approach audio correctly, mostly just bolting speakers into a ceiling, throwing some amplifiers at them, and hoping a noise comes out. They lack detailed knowledge of speaker design or acoustics or room tuning. We differ in that we apply what I’ve learned as a sound engineer over decades in the professional music business to the unique challenges of luxury yachts.
‘Everyone is super pleased,’ he reports. ‘The boatyard people were blown away when they heard it while we were installing the system, and the owner is really happy with the result. We did separate room mapping for listening to music or watching TV, and assigned separate profiles to different inputs as movie sound tends to be too bass and sub-bass heavy. Whilst not spending so much time at sea, once the destination is reached the fun starts.’
Mosre: https://superyacht-av.com
