Germany - When it came to specifying a sound system for the new Bowling Arena Spich, near Cologne, the choice was to prove to rather more difficult than first anticipated by the architects. The first thing that made this venue different was its size and the very nature of what it was designed for. The Bowling (which opened in December) centre boasts no less that 24 lanes, which when full (every night) creates a tremendous ground noise. Add to this that fact that venue changes its focus later on in the evening to become what's called a 'Disco Bowling Entertainment Centre' and you have the dream/nightmare acoustic situation.

Their initial response to this was to plump for a 'branded' sound system. But the problem there was that the system lacked speech clarity and directivity due to the lack of HF horns in the system. It was it this point that they turned to RCF and offered them the opportunity of a one on one comparison test using the new Acustica system. Acustica utilises its own coverage matching design, 'CMD' providing consistent horizontal and vertical control. This proved to be eminently capable of doing the job, due mainly to their horn loaded tweeters, which were able to direct the sound into the bowling areas without loosing either SPL or speech clarity. The sound installation was carried out by Raum + Schall.

(lee Baldock)


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