60 l April 2012


www.prosoundnewseurope.com


installationfeature Shelter


After an unsurprisingly shaky 2008-2010, the hotel sector is bouncing back with a host of major construction projects. Pleasingly, demand for sophisticated and integrated audio systems is also on the rise, writes David Davies


IF, AS US Senator Hiram Warren Johnson is reported to have claimed, truth is the first casualty of war, then there is a compelling case to be made for disposable income being the inaugural victim of economic turmoil. Leisure/tourism spend is inevitably prone to being struck from the shopping list, as consumers in fear for their jobs batten down the hatches. Businesses, too, will be moved to review travel expenses and ask the dreaded question ‘is this really necessary?’ As readers of PSNEurope sister title Installation Europe will be aware, the


evolution of videoconferencing and telepresencing technology means that the answer, more than ever, can be ‘no’. The recent collapse of several major holiday firms and national airlines (Spanair and Hungary’s Malév both called it quits in February) confirms that this sector is still being hit in 2012. Nonetheless, the overall pattern for travel and tourism is one of improvement: following two years of decline in 2008-2009, the European tourist/accommodation sector began a modest recovery in 2010 that strengthened last year. To illustrate, EU Eurostat


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Tannoy’s success in the premium hotel market during recent years – with “robust growth” particularly evident in the Far East and the Middle East – has been complemented by some notable victories for this and other TC Group brands in projects onboard cruise vessels: a sector which, with its inclination towards sizeable performance spaces and high-spec


systems, possesses more than a few parallels with the hotel market. One of TC’s most productive associations has been between Lab.gruppen amplification and Viking Line, a Finnish shipping company that runs a fleet of cruise liners and ferries between Finland, the Åland Islands, Sweden and Estonia. The operator currently has Lab.gruppen devices on a total of seven ships and has used


from the storm


figures reveal that the total number of nights spent in hotels and similar establishments rose by 3.8% in 2011. A drop in new builds was one


“Many hotels are embracing IPTV and digital signage”


Chris Gunton, CGA Integration


of the most prominent symptoms of the malaise affecting the construction industry. The health of the market in some specific destinations was highlighted by a report issued last summer by tophotelprojects.com: rather surprisingly given the scale of its recession, Dubai headed the roll-call, with 97 hotels under development. Meanwhile, in London, more than a dozen hotels are under construction, with PricewaterhouseCoopers suggesting that the Olympics could help the capital to achieve its highest annual occupancy figures since the 1970s.


With many higher-end facilities hosting conference/ performance facilities with specifications equal to those of superlative standalone venues, the recent upturn is encouraging news for manufacturers, specifiers and installers. Indeed, many of those who spoke to PSNEurope reported buoyant levels of activity, with interest from emerging or previously untapped markets adding to the high spirits.


Lab.gruppen is a sound solution FOR VIKING LINE


the brand almost exclusively for its amplification needs for the last 18 years. Discussing a combined


Lab.gruppen inventory of between 120 and 140 units, Viking Line AV manager Jouni Sironen tells PSNEuropethat the amplifier brand is distinguished by its “sound quality, durability, lightness, low power consumption, good service and long guarantees. Recently, the C-Series amplifiers have made our lives a lot simpler with up to eight channels per unit yielding opportunities to run two channels to 4 ohms and six with 70V lines. The result is that less rack space is needed.”


Invited to highlight other offshore audio trends, Sironen says that “remote access is becoming more and more important. The ships are growing larger but the amount of technical staff is remaining the same – commonly, one or two per ship.”


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