Wilsons Automobiles in Surrey contacted us for a large background music system to go in their latest showroom, which was under construction. It was to include independent zoned control, paging announcement capability, and a mixture of wall speakers and ceiling speakers.
Commercial Sound System
A large and modern design of car showroom, the Wilsons building features several brand dealerships in one place, with a mix of open plan areas, balcony level, high ceiling entrance section, and standard ceiling height for display and seated sales areas.
After initial discussions with the owners, the chosen specs for the installation called for 6 audio zones, each with its own volume control and individual source playback, along with a master playback when required, and a tannoy announcement facility.
The variations in the layout and functionality of the building saw to it that a mixture of both wall mount speakers and ceiling speakers would be used, with the superb Amate B6 wall speakers being the advised choice for their smart appearance and powerful performance.
Installation Audio Speakers
Amate Audio speakers offer incredible levels of quality and reliability, with the Spanish manufacturers attention to detail and use of high performance drivers and technology making them one of our favourite audio brands.
The Amate B6 speakers, supplied for this job in a smart white finish, offer superb sound reproduction from their 6.5” woofer and titanium tweeter system, providing a stunning depth of clarity and bass response, even when firing into a large open space as they are in this setting.
The ceiling speakers chosen to be fitted around the rest of the building were the excellent FCS5 from Power Dynamics, one of our exclusive brands and a perfect speaker for this installation. Offering great performance at surprisingly low cost, they suit a large background music system perfectly, are easy to install with their built in clamping mechanism, and the flush mount grilles blend seamlessly with their surroundings.
Commercial Audio
With a total of 32 ceiling speakers and 16 wall speakers all required to operate from a single amplifier unit, the decision to use 100V line operation was a given, as any other way would be both very expensive and completely impractical.
With a building of this size and so many speakers spread throughout, the wiring required is quite something, even when using the convenience that the 100V line system offers with its daisy chaining of speaker connections and no impedance mismatch worries.
The wiring to the 6 audio zones were all run back through the dropped ceiling and into one of the rear rooms, where the distribution amplifier is sharing a home in a large rack mount cabinet with the building’s networking equipment.
Both simple and sophisticated, the Fonestar MAZ-6600RU chosen for this install is a powerful tool, with 100W to each of its 6 output channels, and 5 assignable inputs for the connection of audio sources. It also comes fitted with an FM radio and USB/SD card MP3 player, and it’s simple controls mean level adjustments are a 2 second task.
Our install team made sure that the zones and their relative locations were clearly labelled on the amplifier for ease of use.
Commercial Speaker System
When installing speakers to a mixture of materials during an installation, various techniques can be required beyond what many would believe is simply screwing a speaker into a hole.
For the ceiling speakers at Wilsons, the use of polystyrene-type dropped ceiling panels is a blessing for wiring access, but are far too delicate to take either the weight or allow secure clamping of a ceiling speaker directly.
The solution is the use of custom wooden panels, cut to match the size of the ceiling panel framework to allow it to sit securely in the ceiling cavity, with the standard ceiling tile acting as a face plate. These were made from 15mm laminated particleboard for this particular job due to its availability on site, and give the speaker a solid hold, along with helping remove vibration which enhances their overall performance.
Car Showroom Speaker System Installation
The system as a whole is immensely capable both for general background music duties, or for those open days and new vehicle launches where louder music and things like pre-recorded store notices can be played back.
The zoned arrangement works perfectly in this setting, allowing areas to be silent if needed, and for brand specific audio adverts or announcements to be contained to each specific zone, or quickly changed up for the same music or radio across the entire system.
The management and sales team at Wilsons use the system 7 days a week, and are thrilled with both its sound quality and ease of use, as it provides them the control they wanted over volume levels and playback choice, allowing the showroom and sales environment to be lively and modern, without being overbearing as some can be.
The Equipment Supplied:
- 1 x Fonestar MAZ-6600RU 6 zone matrix
- 32 x FCS5 Ceiling Speakers
- 16 x Amate B6 White
Plus all required Speaker Cable and Audio Interconnects.