Sound system Déjà Vu all over again!—Revisiting past design approaches in an acoustically challenging multi-purpose space

Abstract

In the late 90s, we were tasked with designing a sound reinforcement system that would provide great speech intelligibility, in a highly reverberant space, without modifying any of the architectural finishes. The sound system had to support different types of events, held in different locations within the space, and with varying audience sizes. In 2015, we were asked to revisit the original loudspeaker design, and upgrade the sound system in that same space. Flash forward a few more years, and the entire building is getting a renovation—and we are once again designing a completely new sound system. This paper presents a case study of the upgrades, and describes the challenges, the lessons learned, and the changes in approach from the original upgrade through to the most recent design.