Four years in the planning and with a £6m investment, including £1.5m from the Sports Council Wales Sportlot capital fund, the north Wales resort town of Llandudno has a new swimming centre and a high-tech Renkus-Heinz and Biamp audio system to match.
Llandudno Swimming Centre has a 25m, eightlane international short course main competition pool – with a moveable floor that allows its depth to be varied – a 20m, four-lane pool for teaching and training, and seating for 427 spectators and 250 competitors. The interior features an unusual wave roof profile that looks spectacular after dark when it appears to float above the internal illumination.
Both pools, seating areas and changing rooms, are covered by a six-zone, digital audio paging and background music system. It is the largest UK application to date of Biamp’s NPS1 Network Paging Station, which integrates with Audiaflex DSP audio distribution over CobraNet. Compact, waterproofed Renkus-Heinz PNX61 dual 6in/1in HF loudspeakers provide high-directivity coverage of the pool and seating areas.
That has given the facility what centre manager Peter Aldous calls ‘a dream of flexibility and sound quality: this combination of technologies gives a centre like ours an audio facility that’s stunning, flexible and affordable’
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System integration was by Martin Dawes, with the backup of Polar Audio project manager Simon Druce. Martin Dawes had tendered for the project at its birth in 2004. Martin Dawes’ manager Paul Berry says: ‘The brief was to provide PA facilities for various zones within the complex, including the main and learner pools, changing rooms and various staff areas. Our proposal was accepted three years later so we reappraised the specification to accommodate newer technology.
‘Druce had already proposed using Renkus- Heinz PNX61 loudspeakers in the main pool areas, with a Biamp Audiaflex for signal routing and processing, and those remained at the core of it. The biggest change was incorporating the new Biamp NPS1 network paging station, which we saw on its launch at ISE 2008 and felt it was ideal.’ The system comprises DAB radio, CD player, wireless microphones and iPod dock sources, with routing of any input possible to any specified zone.
A gooseneck microphone and dedicated routing switcher originally specified for the reception desk were replaced by the Biamp NPS1, as Berry explains: ‘The NPS1 links directly via CobraNet into the Audiaflex unit. Since the output zoning was already specified in the Audiaflex, the NPS simply slotted in as an integrated product from the outset, saving a lot of time and cost.’
Biamp’s Da Vinci software, running on PCs, was specified as the system’s front end, allowing routing and level control from separate PCs from multiple offices, a highly flexible solution. The choice of loudspeakers was dictated by the demand for high intelligibility and volume from compact cabinets, with predictable directivity that would help minimise reverberation from the multiplicity of hard roof and wall surfaces in the pool areas. The Complex Conic horn of the Renkus-Heinz PNX61 – powered by Biamp eight-channel 200W amplifiers – met those requirements, and was available in a weatherised version.
‘Along with the inherent quality of the product, they amounted to the best solution at the right price,’ says Berry.
A total of 40 WHD UP14/2-4 100V line level ceiling loudspeakers was installed into the ceiling grids, in either standard or marine version according to location throughout the building’s walkways, stairways and reception area, driven by Dynacord Paramus 122SP amplifiers.
The installation is complemented by a Daktronics LED screen, integrated as a general announcement display and race day scoreboard, with availability to advertisers and sponsors.
Aldous says: ‘The clarity of both the NPS1 and the speakers is very impressive, while the interface provides fast access to the system.’
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