Meyer Sound Self-Powered Loudspeakers Take Sydney's Powerhouse Museum Further, Faster, Higher  

"We have a long history of using Meyer Sound loudspeakers. The build quality is always first class, so there are rarely any maintenance issues. That's critical for a project like this, where the equipment runs every day of the week for the life of the exhibition — possibly as long as six years." - Michael Wilkie Co-founder and Director, Coda Audio Services

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney's Darling Harbour is the largest museum in Australia. It hosts a continually expanding selection of more than 22 permanent exhibitions, in addition to hundreds of interactive exhibits spanning history, science, technology, design, industry, decorative arts, music, and more.

One of the museum's latest exhibitions, "Transport," traces the history of different transportation modes, from the Catalina Flying Boat and horse drawn carts to airplanes. "Transport" also features a sound and lighting show titled Further, faster, higher: a sound and light experience, which transforms the gallery into a "living environment" where vehicles and aircraft seem to take for the open road (or air). Bringing the presentation to life is a soundtrack created by sound designer Paul Charlier, played via a discreetly placed Meyer Sound system installed by Alexandria, Australia-based Coda Audio Services.

The project presented a number of interesting challenges, from tracking down realistic sounds to retrofitting the audio within an existing, and somewhat problematic, infrastructure. Coda Audio Services' co-founder and director Michael Wilkie points to Meyer Sound loudspeakers' self-powered design as a significant asset in this project. "We had some exceptionally long runs — sometimes more than 150 meters — to get to some of the speakers, and not enough space to accommodate a rack of amplifiers," he says.

The installed Meyer Sound system is based around four UPJ-1P compact VariO loudspeakers and a dozen UPM-1P ultracompact wide coverage loudspeakers, positioned to provide both surround and localized coverage. "In addition to the main surround mix, many of the objects required localized sound when the focus was on them," says Wilkie. A pair of 600-HP compact high-power subwoofers covers low frequency content.

"We have a long history of using Meyer Sound loudspeakers," Wilkie adds. "The build quality is always first class, so there are rarely any maintenance issues. That's critical for a project like this, where the equipment runs every day of the week for the life of the exhibition — possibly as long as six years. And most importantly, the sound quality is magnificent."

"The museum directors are delighted with the finished project, and believe the show has 'changed the fabric of the museum,'" says Wilkie. "Like most members of the public, they are blown away by the quality and the realism we have achieved."

The "Transport" exhibition was designed by Sydney-based Ben Hur Performance Management, headed by Principal Ruth Catlin and Creative Director Sandra Eckersley.

January, 2008

600-HP

UPJ-1P

UPM-1P