Second only to Cairo International), Hurghada International is Egypt’s second busiest airport and hosts up to 4.6m passengers each year. With an ongowing increase in traffic, new runways and a new US$300m terminal are set to increase its capacity to 7.5m passengers.
The new terminal has 20 gates, multiple arrival and departure halls, nine baggage claim carousels, restaurants, lounges and shopping areas spread over four levels.
As with most large indoor structures, this massive, reverberant space presented challenges for the airport’s sound system designers. To provide intelligible, high-quality sound, system designer Dar Al Handasah specified digitally steered arrays and Cairo-based Teco was contracted to install a total of 74 Renkus-Heinz Iconyx columns in the various halls.
As Teco’s Amgad William Younan of explains, the structure’s acoustics only exacerbated the issue: ‘The floors are marble, and the walls are glass with aluminium casing,’ he says. ‘And each area’s dimensions are quite huge. The only positive was the ceilings, which are acoustic tiles.’
The largest area, accommodating the international and domestic gates, is covered by 30 IC16/8-R-II columns, along with seven IC8-R-II and two IC24-R-II columns. The check-in hall is served by 11 IC16/8-R-II systems, while ten IC8-R-II columns cover the ‘greeterg area. Particularlt challenging were the baggage claim carousels, which are covered by 12 IC24-R-II columns, with a pair of IC8-R-II units filling in smaller corners.
‘The ability to control the beams of the Iconyx speakers enabled us to provide exceptional speech intelligibility in this very large, highly reverberant space,’ says Younan. ‘Using far fewer units than would be required with conventional speakers, we were able to achieve uniform, even coverage to even the more hard to reach areas.’
More than a year was spent in Ease modelling the complex spaces, and Younan reports the results were more than worth the effort. ‘The system specification called for achieving an STI of more than 0.5,’ he says. ‘Using the Iconyx systems, we were able to increase the STI to a range between 0.55 and 0.7, even exceeding 0.7 in some areas.
‘Iconyx more than met our expectations, and the consultant and client were very impressed with the results,’ he adds. ‘This is truly the best sounding airport in all of Egypt.’
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