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Tannoy's ‘Eyeball' on Cross Channel Ferries
Tannoy's highly versatile range of loudspeaker solutions can be found in countless applications in almost every corner of the world, from Sydney Opera House to the world's tallest skyscraper in Dubai. From Transylvanian nightclubs to Moscow's theatres - they are almost ubiquitous.
Perhaps one of the last places you might expect to find Tannoy however, is on a cross-channel ferry, but that's exactly the kind of application that the company's award winning CMS 401DCe ‘eyeball' ceiling speaker has been selected for by French audio installation company Audiolite for use on Brittany Ferries newest vessels.
The state-of-the-art €120m cruise ferry mv Armorique has been designed specifically for use between Plymouth and the Breton port of Roscoff and entered service in February 2009. The region's leading ferry operator had a clear requirement for high quality, intelligible distributed sound throughout the passenger deck areas of their new luxury cruise ferry, and so Audiolite's decision to specify Tannoy's eyeball made perfect sense, delivering class-leading coverage at remarkably good value. In total, 41 CMS 401DCe ceiling speakers were installed across several decks. The CMS401 DCe features Tannoy's exclusive point source Dual Concentric driver. The mid-bass and tweeter sections are coincidentally aligned to a true point source; ensuring a wide and controlled dispersion for optimum coverage and a smooth, uniform frequency response over a wide area of coverage; this while avoiding the massive loss of energy, in the vertical plane at the crossover frequency, inherent in two-way discrete designs.
The mv Armorique is one of the larger ferries in Brittany Ferries' fleet, and the largest purpose-built to serve the Plymouth - Roscoff route, but it isn't the first to feature Tannoy's ceiling speakers, with the company's newest freight-only vessel also boasting 21 CMS 401 DCe speakers. The Cotentin provides new capacity on the Poole to Cherbourg service during the week and, at the weekend, opens up a bypass service to Santander, enabling transporters to avoid the weekend driving ban in France. The new €80m freighter will provide space for 120 articulated vehicles and accommodation for freight drivers will be offered in 120 two-berth, en-suite cabins.
Audiolite, in conjunction with distributor DV2, installed Lab.gruppen C-Series amplifiers to power the systems on both ferries. They have been very satisfied with both components of the audio system, and Audiolite's Franck Fily had this to say about the project: "The ultimate goal was to find a system that could deliver different programming to distinct passenger deck areas. Brittany-Ferries also insisted on high-quality products, to ensure the operation of the ship 24/7." Explained Fily.
He went on to explain: "Regarding loudspeakers, we had two primary constraints. The first was the size, as we could not exceed 200mm diameter due to the ferries ceiling structure. The second constraint was sound, the ceiling heights are quite low and so we needed a product which had very controlled directivity.
"We are very pleased with the final result and hope to continue our relationship with Tannoy. Thank you to Mark Trense of Tannoy France as well as Pascal Minier of Brittany Ferries, with whom we worked on the case."
Clearly, where there's a dedicated remit for high quality sound, Tannoy are the obvious choice of loudspeaker in any application - even on the high seas.
10th March 2009
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