68 l April 2013
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installationfeature
“Beam steered systems are very suitable for environments where the acoustic is critical. The advantage is that they allow the beam to be
focused without deflecting the acoustic energy” Antonio Ferrari, RCF
support worldwide, but the main one is continuing market demand. “It’s driven by the choices of architects in the materials used for their designs,” he explains. “Many spaces are surrounded by glass and metal, with no use of absorption, so getting good intelligibility is more challenging for commercial audio installers.” Monitto agrees that CAL is a departure for Meyer, not just in the target sector but also components and construction. “The only thing similar to what
we already do is the four-inch driver,” he says. “Everything else has been designed from the ground up – the amps, the high- frequency driver and so on.” CAL also has its own look – Meyer engaged an industrial designer to come up with something that, Monitto explains, “looked good and contemporary” but not in an obtrusive way because it is intended to be installed in “Gothic churches” as well as shiny modern airport buildings, offices and shopping centres.
JBL CBT 70J columns were recently installed in St Andrew’s Church in Gloucester THE ALTERNATIVE: PASSIVE STEERABLE COLUMNS
Most people prefer to use advanced technology in demanding situations but sometimes that is expensive and, on occasions, the more complicated approach can bring its own problems. JBL has not joined the digital beam steering movement but produces what it sees as a legitimate option: the CBT (constant bandwidth technology) passive column. The CBT range can be
steered, or focused, manually for selectable coverage with two patterns to choose from. Rick Kamlet, JBL’s senior marketing manager for commercial
installed sound, explains that the CBT 100LA-1 offers either 40º, making it “like a very well controlled narrow-coverage point-and-shoot speaker”, and 15º, which “makes it like a traditional column speaker but with much more consistent pattern control”. Kamlet acknowledges that
passive columns have to be aimed physically and the coverage adjustability is not continuously variable but argues that because of the constant directivity coverage and built-in technology, “CBT speakers tend to be better at covering the listening area more evenly”.
Another advantage is the basic simplicity of passive columns: “There are no amplifiers, no DSP, and no network so there is less to go wrong and they are as easy to install into a project as any passive speaker.” CBT 70J columns were
recently installed in St Andrew’s Church in the Gloucester village of Churchdown. Kelly Gibson of installation company Revolution Multimedia says the CBTs were selected because the congregation faces the long wall of the church, calling for a wide dispersion.
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