Hong Kong (April 17, 2018)—Investing in Asia Pacific’s biggest LED screen was no small undertaking for Hong Kong’s Sogo department store. The 230-by-53-foot video screen outside the retailer’s flagship store faces into Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay has a massive presence, and now that’s compounded by two 12-ft Renkus-Heinz IC Live Triple column line arrays on hand to provide audio for the screen.
Working on the project, Ian Harris, president and principal consultant of ihD Ltd, noted, “Down in the street, we measured a standard level of 75 dBA to 85 dBA (weighted) of traffic noise, so we knew our main challenge would be to get the sound or speech across to people through this level of background noise, but without incurring complaints from other traders or the local authorities.”
Aiming to ensure that audio only reached pedestrians at street level, they opted to go with a beam-steered column array. Harris offered, “Renkus-Heinz IC Live is really the only one that can offer extended bass for the low frequency content.”
Harris employed EASE modelling and designed a system of two columns of three IC Live Triple column arrays apiece. “We face tropical storms, typhoons, and even in less dramatic periods, salty rain coming off the ocean, so the loudspeakers were provided in weatherproofed finishes,” says Patrick Leung, of regional Renkus-Heinz distributor CAH Professional Sound.
Installation took place over the summer, after which Harris and his team cautiously began to put the system into action. “We started at a low level – not even 5 dB above the traffic noise level – as we were very keen that the system should not interfere with the activities of other stores,” he said. “The system is sounding good. The use of processing to compress signals in order to really define the range has definitely helped us too.”
Renkus-Heinz • www.renkus-heinz.com
