The newly opened Hollywood Event Center in Rotterdam is the city’s biggest leisure facility, describing itself as a ‘high-end family entertainment center’. The 4,500 m2, two-storey indoor site is a fusion of interactive gaming and movie themed hospitality. Amongst the projection, LED and VR of 24 lanes of F1 race simulators, X-Cube interactive escape rooms, Lucky Putt Minigolf and Interactive Darts, a full-size sports bars and a live stage, is a 162-loudspeaker site-wide Amate Audio sound installation.
With DMX controlled lighting and projection mapping creating a visually immersive experience throughout the mixed gaming, bar and lounge environments, the challenge for locally based Amate Audio Benelux distributor Imagination AV, was to devise and install a sufficiently expansive and capable audio installation to provide sonically cohesive coverage, at levels for BGM, DJ and live performance, throughout a venue with varied acoustic characteristics. Standardisation of loudspeaker models with a common audio signature was a starting point for MD and Project Manager Jason Lupgens, selecting two models from Amate Audio’s Nítid dedicated compact, high performance installation series as his principal designs.
“We chose the Nítid N26P as the ‘standard’ loudspeaker system throughout the venue, deploying it in ways required by the particular acoustics,” explains Lupgens. “The N26P is an especially adept and powerful solution for installations in large scale environments of this kind. A column configured enclosure with dual 6”carbon-fiber drivers and a 1″ neodymium tweeter, it has high intelligibility, full-range response and a 400 watt power handling capability, and yet is remarkably compact for a cabinet of such power and performance. We used 52 of them, in combination with 62 of its smaller S6P sibling – which utilises a single identical carbon fiber driver and the same neodymium tweeter – to address any dead zones and achieve even coverage across the site.”
The greatest acoustic disparity resulted from the lower ceiling on the ground floor and the more cavernous roof space in the upper level. Installation of the N26Ps on the ground floor was possible by fixing them on the ceiling in the horizontal plane. On the upper floor, it was necessary to rig them vertically in the roof, in clusters of four. Additional reinforcement on the upper floor required 10 N18WP compact subs, also rigged in the roof. To provide additional impact for the ground floor live stage, pairings of N12P 2-way 12” cabs and N18WP subs were rigged either side of the stage.
The entire site is configured as five main control zones. In the three separate audience zones, user control is locked off with automatic changes in volume triggered with switches in input mode between ‘restaurant’, ‘DJ’ and ‘stage’ settings. Other zones include the toilets where BGM is provided by 24 Amate Audio CS6FR in-ceiling speakers, and two F1 themed meeting rooms on the upper floor, where eight of the new G7 ultra-compact, premium commercial audio design provide the audio source. “An Audac M2 matrix system provides the zoning,” continues Lupgens,” As well as central paging and automatic evacuation address in the event of a fire alarm. After the M2, four Amate Audio LMS608 digital loudspeaker management processors enable tuning of each zone and every individual speaker.”
Each of eight outputs on each LMS608 processor feed a channel of an HD3200 power amplifier. 22 of these High Dynamic Power Class H amplifiers provide power for the entire installation, totalling a massive 7.7 kW of available continuous program power.
Peter van Leeuwen’s GLOWGOLF DE KUIP B.V. company is owner of the center, and he supervised the creation of the attraction, working closely with Lupgens on specification and design of the audio. “Distribution of the sound in a building like this is difficult,” he says. “We were professionally advised by Imagination AV and our experience with Amate Audio speakers had been very positive in earlier projects. With a perfectly balanced installation of almost 170 speakers, we achieved very good, even coverage and a warm sound.”
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