d&b Distributor Amptec revives historical site
For the exhibition Sagalassos, City Of Dreams, staged at the Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren, Belgium, Amptec was asked to provide a 270° film screen surrounding a 3D scale model of the ancient Turkish city of Sagalassos. “Although Amptec is mainly known as an audio distribution company, this project illustrates how we act as a team player in delivering an overall solution. Alongside our own specialised staff for turnkey projects, multimedia company Maverick ICS and Watchkraft, taking on camera work, sound recording and postproduction, were involved,” says Frank Geerts, sales manager with Amptec.
“The challenge was to revive the poetry of the Sagalassos archaeological site in the mountains of Anatolia, Turkey, concentrating on the exact reproduction of the architecture and giving the audience the impression of being there,” says Johan Schelfhout, Managing Director at Maverick ICS. “The key element was to offer the public a 270° image without distortion.”
“Throughout the project, audio plays a supportive role adding to the perception of the exhibition; people hear the cold wind blowing in the morning, the crickets at high noon,” Geerts adds. “Audio reproduction in a museum requires extra measures. The sound system must have controlled and well defined dispersion characteristics, concentrating the sound projection in one specific area. We also had to think of a system that would allow the museum guides to adapt the overall volume when a guided tour passed along the Salagassos projection.” The sound signal for the projection was routed from the five video servers, connecting the optical digital outputs with three d&b D6 amplifiers. “These amplifiers are equipped with digital inputs and the conversion from the optical signal to AES was quite simple,” explains Geerts. “The volume of the amplifiers is centrally controlled via the projection’s main programmable logic controller allowing museum staff to adjust the output volume of the whole system with just one control.”
The 5.1 surround audio configuration comprises five d&b White range 4S loudspeaker cabinets containing one 4” driver and one coaxially mounted 0.75” dome tweeter, hidden in the projection structure, and one 12S subwoofer. “The White range enclosures are a novelty within d&b’s install loudspeaker systems,” concludes Geertz. “They are easy to work with and have a very discrete look.” Sagalassos, City Of Dreams runs until June 17th.
Used by kind permission of PSNEurope, (c) 2012 Intent Media
Photographs courtesy of Watchkraft
