RALEIGH, NC –– NC State’s new $115 million, 220,000-square-foot James B. Hunt Jr. Library, which opened at the college’s main campus here in January, features an AV system specified by Pittsburgh-based Sextant Group, with an assist from “Powered By” partner Sennheiser and Tampa, FL-based installers AVI-SPL. The project included a variety of Sennheiser and K-array components.
More details from Sennheiser (www.sennheiserusa.com) and K-array (www.k-array.com):
Premium Sound Plays Foundational Role in 220,000 Square Foot, $115 Million Learning Facility, Which Serves as ‘Technology Incubator’ For Students and Faculty
NC State is known around the world as a preeminent technology and research university, preparing thousands of students each year for the most demanding and creative high-tech careers on the planet. The University recently opened its pioneering, state of the art new learning facility and technology incubator, James B. Hunt Jr. Library. The new facility, which features audio solutions from Sennheiser and K-array, provides students and faculty with unmatched visualization, computing and collaboration technologies for advanced, next generation applications in engineering, computer science, textiles, design, and other disciplines.
More details from (http://www.ncsu.edu/ and http://en-us.sennheiser.com/):
NC State is known around the world as a preeminent technology and research university, preparing thousands of students each year for the most demanding and creative high-tech careers on the planet. Located on the University’s Centennial Campus and designed by renowned international architectural firm Snøhetta, the Hunt Library is meant to be a ‘technology sandbox’ — a place where innovative ideas can flourish and collaborative dialog can be exchanged without restriction. During the design phase of the facility, Sennheiser became an official ‘Powered By’ partner.
“We had to find the right technology partners that could fit into our vision,” says Maurice York, Head, Information Technology NCSU Libraries, NC State University. “The Hunt Library is an impressive building, designed by one of the best architecture firms in the world,” says York. “So performance and form factor were very important considerations for us all the way through. We wanted to create a sound environment that brought this incredible visual environment to life, so visitors would have that ‘WOW’ experience.”
Scott Frey of Pittsburgh-based The Sextant Group handled the A/V design and supervised equipment specification for the entire project, and the installation was handled by Tampa, FL-based integrator AVI-SPL, a company that was chosen for their knowledge in complex A/V installations: “AVI-SPL have a quality team in the field and were one of only a few companies that could fill the requirements of the project,” says Frey. “We were very confident working alongside them from the very beginning.”
The library, which is comprised of more than 220,000 square feet, had several dedicated spaces featuring large-scale visualization, interactive displays, 3D motion technologies and other visual elements that would be complemented by highly specialized audio componentry from Sennheiser and K-array. “Audio quality is always the first thing I consider, and then aesthetics follow closely behind,” says Frey, who identified K-array as a suitable solution following a visit to the K-array demo room at the InfoComm trade show in 2011. “The video componentry was the highest quality on the market, so I wanted to match this with the highest possible audio quality.”
Frey thought the K-array system would be perfect for the Library’s Game Lab — not only because of their sound, but because of their small footprint. “I had maybe 6 in.” to work with for each speaker, and had to ensure the sound was paramount,” Frey recalls. “Those 2″ linear drivers on the KK102 really sold me — a traditional loudspeaker would have been twice that size.”
After setting up a K-array surround system in the Game Lab, Frey was so pleased that he specified them for other environments within the Library as well, in addition to headphones and wireless equipment from Sennheiser. Sennheiser’s Eric Reese facilitated demonstrations in several rooms that were still under construction at the time, including what would eventually become the Auditorium. “Even though we knew the acoustical properties of the rooms would change, it was important for us to be inside the building and inside those spaces,” York explains. “After we set up a 5.1 system in the Game Lab, we then went down to the Auditorium and auditioned several different types of music. The performance of the system just blew us away.”
There were five primary A/V environments the team focused on for the initial installation: the Game Lab, the Teaching and Visualization Lab, the Creativity Studio and the Auditorium. Each space had a completely different technology focus and design program.
