April, 2010
January, 2010
November, 2009
November, 2009
July 2009
Genelec AOW312B System in challenging Media Room
Genelec, the pioneer in Active Monitoring technology for three decades, offers home theater and custom installers the most advanced active speaker solutions with its line of discreet, low-profile models. Recently, Environmental Technology Center, a Boston-based design, consulting, install and product sales company, employed several Genelec Custom Installation home theater speakers in a high-end residential media room project in the Boston suburb of Wellesley.
According to David Shulman, Systems Designer at Environmental Technology Center, there were multiple challenges with this room. These included projector throw distance for the 13-foot-long media room, and speaker placement for its 54-inch-by-96-inch 16:9-aspect ratio screen.
“The original design called for all components, including the center channel speaker, to be located in a low custom cabinet located under the screen,” Shulman notes.
“The original ceiling height of 88 inches was reduced to 80 when a decorative soffit was installed. This reduced the height of the custom cabinet to 18 inches after allowing for the outer dimensions of the screen and leaving two inches of ‘wiggle’ room. Due to the large screen size and low ceiling height, we were required to install the center channel speaker very low in the front of the room. An installation like this can create challenges for hearing the dialog at low volume levels.”
The solution was an LCR array consisting of two Genelec AOW312B Active On-Wall Loudspeakers and one Genelec HT320B Three-Way Active Center Channel Loudspeaker. “The AOW312B has the ability to have its Waveguide™ inverted, and we requested this at the time we placed the order, and Genelec inverted the waveguides prior to shipping,” Shulman explains. “Not only did this cut down on the install time, it allowed us to invert the entire speaker and place the acoustic centers of the front left, center and right speakers close together on virtually the same plane and at ear level when sitting down. In addition to inverting the Waveguides, Genelec also helped us calibrate the audio system on-site and made sure the room response controls on the individual speakers were set properly. This is what allowed the center-channel speaker to be placed so close to the floor while maintaining clear intelligible dialog and proper frequency balance.”
In addition, two Genelec AIC25 In-Ceiling speakers were installed as surround speakers, and two matching Genelec 5050A subs were located on the floor to the left and right of the cabinet below the screen. Rounding out the system are three Genelec RAM4 amplifiers, two RAM2 amplifiers, an NAD T175 surround sound preamplifier, a Crestron™ CP2E control processor and a Crestron TPMC-8X Eight-Inch Wireless Touch Panel.
“The client wanted this to be the best sounding room in the house,” says Shulman, noting that they were already familiar with Genelec speakers located in the upstairs study. “Because the Genelec’s are active speakers, they are a great value. The clients couldn’t be happier with the performance of this media room -- the speakers play loud and clear, the projector provides a stunning HD image and the overall experience is fantastic.”
The AOW312B Active On-Wall Loudspeaker measures up to Genelec’s renowned performance standards at less than 7" deep for easy aesthetic integration. This speaker was designed to serve two types of environments: surrounds for large scale rooms (>9000 cubic feet) where HT324A or larger mains speakers are used, as well as the front wall for smaller rooms (5000 to 8000 cubic feet) where space behind the screen and the wall are limited. The AOW312B is a three-way active speaker with a 12" woofer, 5" midrange (DCW-equipped) and 1" metal dome tweeter. It also features a remote amplifier housed in a 19" x 7U remote amp rack. Each amplifier provides 180 Watts for the woofer, 120 Watts for the midrange and 120 Watts for the tweeter. The AOW312B has an exceptionally wide frequency response of 37 Hz-21 kHz (+/-2 dB) and a maximum peak SPL of 123 dB. Its dimensions are 59 1/16" H x 15 3/4" W x 6 7/8" D.
According to David Shulman, Systems Designer at Environmental Technology Center, there were multiple challenges with this room. These included projector throw distance for the 13-foot-long media room, and speaker placement for its 54-inch-by-96-inch 16:9-aspect ratio screen.
“The original design called for all components, including the center channel speaker, to be located in a low custom cabinet located under the screen,” Shulman notes.“The original ceiling height of 88 inches was reduced to 80 when a decorative soffit was installed. This reduced the height of the custom cabinet to 18 inches after allowing for the outer dimensions of the screen and leaving two inches of ‘wiggle’ room. Due to the large screen size and low ceiling height, we were required to install the center channel speaker very low in the front of the room. An installation like this can create challenges for hearing the dialog at low volume levels.”
The solution was an LCR array consisting of two Genelec AOW312B Active On-Wall Loudspeakers and one Genelec HT320B Three-Way Active Center Channel Loudspeaker. “The AOW312B has the ability to have its Waveguide™ inverted, and we requested this at the time we placed the order, and Genelec inverted the waveguides prior to shipping,” Shulman explains. “Not only did this cut down on the install time, it allowed us to invert the entire speaker and place the acoustic centers of the front left, center and right speakers close together on virtually the same plane and at ear level when sitting down. In addition to inverting the Waveguides, Genelec also helped us calibrate the audio system on-site and made sure the room response controls on the individual speakers were set properly. This is what allowed the center-channel speaker to be placed so close to the floor while maintaining clear intelligible dialog and proper frequency balance.”
In addition, two Genelec AIC25 In-Ceiling speakers were installed as surround speakers, and two matching Genelec 5050A subs were located on the floor to the left and right of the cabinet below the screen. Rounding out the system are three Genelec RAM4 amplifiers, two RAM2 amplifiers, an NAD T175 surround sound preamplifier, a Crestron™ CP2E control processor and a Crestron TPMC-8X Eight-Inch Wireless Touch Panel.“The client wanted this to be the best sounding room in the house,” says Shulman, noting that they were already familiar with Genelec speakers located in the upstairs study. “Because the Genelec’s are active speakers, they are a great value. The clients couldn’t be happier with the performance of this media room -- the speakers play loud and clear, the projector provides a stunning HD image and the overall experience is fantastic.”
The AOW312B Active On-Wall Loudspeaker measures up to Genelec’s renowned performance standards at less than 7" deep for easy aesthetic integration. This speaker was designed to serve two types of environments: surrounds for large scale rooms (>9000 cubic feet) where HT324A or larger mains speakers are used, as well as the front wall for smaller rooms (5000 to 8000 cubic feet) where space behind the screen and the wall are limited. The AOW312B is a three-way active speaker with a 12" woofer, 5" midrange (DCW-equipped) and 1" metal dome tweeter. It also features a remote amplifier housed in a 19" x 7U remote amp rack. Each amplifier provides 180 Watts for the woofer, 120 Watts for the midrange and 120 Watts for the tweeter. The AOW312B has an exceptionally wide frequency response of 37 Hz-21 kHz (+/-2 dB) and a maximum peak SPL of 123 dB. Its dimensions are 59 1/16" H x 15 3/4" W x 6 7/8" D.
