Tannoy and Biamp provide emergency comms at Canberra Airport

AUSTRALIA: A large number of Tannoy QFlex and CMS speakers have been installed at Canberra Airport in Australia as part of a massive AUS$480 million redevelopment of its terminal precinct that has since helped it earn Airport of the Year status. Rutledge AV was commissioned to design and deliver the Western Concourse Public Address and Emergency Warning and Intercommunications System (EWIS) for Stage 2 of Canberra Airport, also drawing upon products from Biamp’s Vocia system.

Surrounded by highly reflective glass panels, the 1,500 sq-m precinct provided the integrators with some complex acoustic challenges. The large glass atrium, active runways and the region beyond forms a 16m high structure comprising 279 large glazed panels and, because the system would be used for emergency communications, needed to comply with strict regulations relating to the Speech Transmission Index (STI) as well as the overall SPL. Working in collaboration with Tannoy’s regional distributor Audio Products Group, EASE modelling was employed to determine the optimal speaker positions with respect to regulation compliance and architectural considerations.

Rutledge installed two pairs of QFlex 32 steerable arrays mounted to columns on either side of the entrance hall, along with a QFlex 40 installed above the exit to the departure gates. The enclosure exteriors were designed and redesigned several times to conform to the architectural requirements. Elsewhere in the terminal, a total of 330 CMS 601BM ceiling speakers have been deployed for the concourse, restaurant and departure gates to provide extended coverage.

The new EWIS system also needed to integrate into the facility’s existing infrastructure to provide airport-wide coverage from a centralised location. Biamp’s Vocia system was chosen for this purpose in addition to its normal paging capabilities, however integrating this with the existing Klotz-based infrastructure required the installer to work around the clock and in co-ordination with other stakeholders. The Fire Services, for example, needed to be onsite to program the fire panel that integrates with the Rutledge AV paging system to trigger the EWIS at times of emergency, and Rutledge had to ensure the EWIS system adhered to the applicable standards and would evacuate different set zones in a controlled fashion.

‘A project of this size that operates for most of the day in a public environment meant that the Rutledge AV commissioning team worked overnight to have the new system operational by morning,’ explained Andrew Morrice, CEO of Rutledge AV. ‘The night work was also necessary to undertake the required EVAC testing of the system and the cutover required precise coordination with the client to ensure that all stakeholders were on line at the same time.’

‘Tannoy has firmly established QFlex as the solution of choice in major transportation hubs in the UK and abroad, and forthcoming innovations will only add to an already extensive feature set and underline Tannoy’s ongoing commitment to be at the forefront of the steerable and architectural audio market,’ added Tannoy product manager Stuart Archibald. ‘This superior innovation, unbeatable sonic clarity and overall user experience make QFlex the most compelling choice for any application where intelligibility in a reverberant space is a paramount concern.’

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