Denmark’s Jyske Bank has broken rank with corporate meeting room design, discarding conventional microphones and table-top units for its board meetings, presentations and videoconferencing. The resultant architectural and acoustic space at its HQ relies on a Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system to challenge the former ground rules.
As Director of Communications Technology at Jyske Bank, it fell to Steen Mertz to approach Anders Jørgensen, Project Manager for Copenhagen-based integrator Stouenborg, with the ambition of creating create a space that encourages free-flowing conversations. ‘Our goal was to optimise the space and improve communications within the bank, as well as with international business partners during videoconferences,’ says Mertz. ‘With the adaptability and surprisingly natural acoustical qualities of Constellation, we have achieved this goal to a remarkable degree.’
The Constellation system has four presets customised for the bank’s range of business uses. These take advantage of Constellation’s voice lift feature, which generates precisely articulated and directed early reflections to greatly enhance intelligibility.
In Presentation mode, the system picks up the signals near the presenter and reproduces them in the audience area, while in Debate mode, the gain is raised throughout the room so all may participate in a discussion and be heard easily, with no need for microphones or raised voices. In Conference Table mode, the system focuses on the sounds from the centre of the room, and Small Groups mode uses subtle reverberation effects to provide acoustical isolation between adjacent groups.
For videoconferencing, Constellation picks up all voices, with no need for individual microphones. ‘We’ve already had compliments from other companies we work with,’ Mertz reports. ‘They say it’s very easy to hear what everyone in the room is saying, and this is mainly due to Constellation.’
Constellation also avoids the communication hazards that individual tabletop microphones present in conference applications. ‘With tabletop mics, if you look up and down or side to side, the level changes,’ says Jørgensen. ‘But with Constellation you can turn in any direction, even stand up and move around, and everyone in the room still hears you clearly.’
The system also uses presets with long reverberation times of up to four seconds for musical applications. These long settings are appreciated by the bank’s in-house choir, which uses the space for rehearsing.
‘The system sounds completely natural, as if you were changing wall materials, or moving walls closer or further away on demand,’ adds Jørgensen.
The Jyske Bank meeting room holds up to 75 people, and can be quickly configured for theatre-style presentations, board meetings around a table, or simultaneous small group sessions.
The Constellation system comprises 36 MM-4XPD and 22 MM-4XP self-powered loudspeakers, two UP-4XP 48 V loudspeakers, four Stella-8C installation loudspeakers, eight MM-10XP 48 V subwoofers, and 25 discreetly mounted miniature condenser microphones. A D-Mitri digital audio platform running on Constellation’s VRAS acoustical algorithm is at the heart of the system.
More: www.meyersound.com
