The new De Krook building in the Belgian city of Ghent is described as “the inspiration for knowledge culture and innovation”. The initiative of the City of Ghent, Ghent University and IMEC the hub of the complex is a library for the 21st century supported by a full range of facilities, including IPEM’s ArtScienceLab. The facility has been designed as an open house for all citizens to use.
De Krook was designed by architects, Ghent-based Coussee & Goris Architecten and Spanish Catalan firm, RCR Arquitectes, to resemble a stack of horizontal plateaus. Martin Audio’s Belgian distributor, FACE, presented the successful technical bid for the AV fit-out for the ArtScienceLab, responding to a tender document issued by IPEM. In proposing the Martin Audio CDD series for the Lab, FACE met the requirements for a loudspeaker with horizontal dispersion of 120° and high SPL from a compact enclosure, in order to reproduce live music and immersive sound research taking place in the Lab.
The system, comprising 64 pole-mounted CDD6 (6.5 – inches) Coaxial Differential Dispersion speakers, is driven and processed by Powersoft amplification over a Dante network. Providing LF extension are four Martin Audio CSX118BF 18” compact direct radiating powered subwoofers.The installation will also be used for wave field synthesis, a spatial audio rendering technique. The new facility, set over 18,000 sq meters will be used by the research groups for Media, Innovation and Communication Technologies (MICT of the Department of Communication Sciences), Culture & Education (Department of Educational Sciences), IPEM, and IDLab (Internet and Data Lab), all of which will be operating from there. Urgent.fm, Ghent University’s own radio station, also operates from there.
The technical installation was project managed by FACE’s Steven Kemland and Stijn Vermeiren. Stated Bart Moens, from the Dept of Art, Music & Theatre Sciences, “Having now had time to make an in-depth review of the installation I must say how much I admire the result, which sounds and looks splendid. I want to thank the FACE team for their wonderful co-operation.”
For more information visit: https://martin-audio.com
About Martin Audio®
Founded by audio engineer David Martin in 1971, Martin Audio pioneered the use of all-horn- loaded bass designs in world-class touring loudspeaker systems for groups such as Pink Floyd, ELP and Supertramp. Today, Martin Audio embodies a sophisticated mix of acoustic design, research, mathematical modelling and software engineering for a wide range of products in the installation and touring sound markets.
