[ATTACH=CONFIG]197289.vB5-legacyid=7776[/ATTACH]8/14/2013 Manchester, UK — Swedish sporting goods chain Sportshopen has outfitted its new Grebbestad retail complex with a total of 176 TURBOSOUND loudspeakers inside and outside the building, including the IMPACT 55T and IMPACT 65T models in addition to TCS-61 two-way loudspeakers and TCS-C50T ceiling speakers.
Sportshopen demanded a big, high-quality sound with minimal aesthetic impact. Having selected TURBOSOUND for their other locations, the choice for superlative sound at the 14,000 square metre Grebbestad location was easy. TURBOSOUND had already demonstrated a strong standard of superior sound in nine of the sporting brand’s other retail locations, and as a result Sportshopen insisted on continuing the tradition.
Consultant Richard Meijer of Electronic Equipment Stromstad AB specified the project, and acted as the coordinator between supplier Fitzpatrick and contractor Swedemount. According to Meijer, the combination retail, office and conference areas presented challenges that required creativity to surmount.
“First of all, the design objective was very simple: small loudspeakers with a big sound,” explains Meijer. Due to the layout and dimensions of the main retail space a combination of wall-mounted and ceiling-mounted loudspeakers was chosen to cover the entire project with seamless audio since both types deliver essentially the same sound character.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]197290.vB5-legacyid=7777[/ATTACH]With 38 zones, both indoor and outdoor, as well as paging and A/V requirements, the installation was a substantial undertaking. According to Ulf Edelonn from TURBOSOUND’s Swedish distributor Fitzpatrick it is rare for higher quality loudspeaker products such as TURBOSOUND to feature in a large-scale retail environment since normally a much cheaper product would be chosen.
But Sportshopen’s owner Reinert Sorensson was quick to realise that better quality audio in the store would have a measurable effect on business growth. Richard Meijer: “It was his decision to choose TURBOSOUND Impact loudspeakers. He likes them, and he wants them. The first shop I did for him eight or nine years ago featured the IMPACT 50, and I think he has now bought more than 400 of them. He now has nine stores of 2,000 square metres and bigger and in four or five years the turnover has gone up by a factor of ten!
“This is how he thinks, and is a demonstration of why he likes to work with quality — from the installation to the building to the products themselves,” says Edelonn. “Usually these kinds of sports outlets cram a lot of merchandise into an existing building without any thought, but he designed the concept first and chose the building accordingly. To put things into perspective, the installation of a quality sound system was actually not a big investment: SEK 3 million compared to SEK 150 million for the building.”
Passive 5-inch two-way IMPACT 55Ts with integral line transformer were deployed in most of the store, a total of 144 in all, many of them wall-mounted in pairs on the supplied WB-5 adjustable wall brackets to pillars wherever available. In the corners, the IMPACT 65T with its two 5-inch low frequency drivers, two high frequency tweeters and integral line transformer add further coverage away from the centre of the main floor area.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]197291.vB5-legacyid=7778[/ATTACH]Meijer admits that some simple creativity was required to compensate for the large distances between the pillars, and hence a wall-mounting solution could not be used throughout. Custom cluster brackets were constructed to provide a quadrant of 30-degree downward angles, with a centre hole for a threaded M12 pole to extend to the ceiling, to mount IMPACT 55T loudspeakers in parts of the store where pillars were not available.
Wherever ceiling heights are lower, the two-way décor-matched TCS-C50T ceiling loudspeakers with integrated line transformers provide a logical high quality solution.
There are also plenty of IMPACT 55Ts mounted in the picking, packing, and warehouse areas of the store to ensure that Sportshopen’s staff can enjoy the same audio quality as its customers. Additionally 12 TCS-61 passive 6-inch two-ways, the smallest of TURBOSOUND’s Contracting series, are ceiling-mounted for extra reinforcement.
Flush-mounted IMPACT 55Ts provide coverage of the conference rooms as well as the Kid’s Cinema Room, where children can enjoy a Disney classic while parents shop for this season’s cool ski attire.
Upon completion, Sorensson declared the speech intelligibility and overall sound quality as “the best we’ve ever heard in a retail store! And the staff are really happy with the audio when they work late.”
Meijer has the last word: “We don’t think there is any other brand that would make my customer so happy.” So much so that the next TURBOSOUND Impact installation is scheduled to take place at Sportshopen’s new Tocksfors location.
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About TURBOSOUND
TURBOSOUND is a leading designer and manufacturer of professional loudspeaker systems. The company’s award winning designs are defined by a harmony between high technology and an instinctive approach to the art of acoustical and electronic engineering. Since inception a number of principle patents have been awarded to TURBOSOUND including three Queen’s Awards for Export Achievement in 1987 and 1997, and for Innovation in 2012, which recognise the success of two ground-breaking design concepts — the Polyhorn and Dendritic waveguides. Both now form the heart of TURBOSOUND’s core product ranges — Aspect, Flex Array and large-scale Flashline loudspeaker systems. TURBOSOUND has also applied its design principles and patented technology to the specialist requirements of the fixed installation, theatre, worship, corporate and A/V markets.
TURBOSOUND is owned by MUSIC Group.
