Shopping Centre Goodman

SOUND EVACUATION ABOVE

Goodman, the new landmark on the three-lane road that runs through Hämeenlinna, attracts shoppers from near and far. Audico supplied the impressive shopping centre with an extensive background music, public address and sound evacuation system.

The Goodman shopping centre uses the Avec G2 public address system developed by Audico, familiar from many public spaces, which seamlessly combines entertainment and public address with a standardised sound evacuation system. The Avec G2 offers outstanding sound quality, economy and flexibility, largely due to the system's digital operating principle.

"In normal mode, the system provides the background music for the entire shopping centre's public areas, which, according to the programming of the central system, is interrupted, for example, by a higher-priority announcement - and in the worst case by a fire alarm," describes Jyri Hiltunen, Sales Manager at Audico.

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IN BRIEF

Audico's market share as a domestic supplier of EN 54-16 certified emergency call systems is significant. The Avec G2 voice evacuation system selected by the Goodman shopping centre is linked to the building's fire alarm system in accordance with the standards and is also connected to the emergency call centre. The system provides a clear message about the cause of the alarm and the action required, which is incomparably more specific and effective in an emergency than simply sounding alarm bells or sirens.

Goodman is an object of significant size by Finnish standards, the likes of which are not launched every year. Audico's equipment includes a main amplification centre and eight sub-amplification centres. The 8- and 24-zone public address and operating consoles in the shopping centre are equipped with a fixed swan-neck microphone, control buttons and a display panel. Each unit is used to control announcements and playback of recorded messages, activate different programme sources and adjust the volume levels in different areas of the building. A special "fireman's booth" with a hand-held microphone operates alongside.

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LONG WAYS

The equipment is supplied in two thousand EN 54-24 certified surface, wall, ceiling, projection and horn loudspeakers, mainly manufactured by IC-Audio, in one or two-way versions and in white or black, depending on the application.

With Goodman, the playlists of the background music are linked via the Internet to the main amplification centre of the system, which in turn distributes the music, like the rest of the data, as unamplified audio to the local sub-amplification centres. They amplify the signal to their own 100-volt transmission voltage loudspeaker arrays, which are distributed over dozens of zones.

The project, which began last summer, was completed early this year. Audico's work at Goodman is not over yet, however, as now that the users have settled in, the system is being tailored to meet their changing needs.

"For example, we are reprogramming the routing and volume of audio sources, where people want to hear local announcements in one area and ask another area to mute the background music of the property."

Hiltunen says he has received good feedback from users during the first few months of operation.

"The installers were able to solve even the biggest challenges on site, and the end result is very successful."

Photos: Kuvatoimisto Kuvio Oy