The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is renowned for its research into molecular biology. Created in 1974 and funded by public research money, the EMBL’s Heidelberg headquarters is now home to a permanent exhibition, World of Molecular Biology – a vibrant and interactive exhibition celebrating the work, people and technologies at EMBL, and in molecular biology.

An innovative audio installation was undertaken by AV specialist D J Willrich, a UK-based systems integrator with a wealth of experience in AV visitor attractions, including the National Motor Museum in the New Forest. As part of the EMBL project, K-array Tornado speakers were installed throughout the facility, delivering highly intelligible narration to accompany the informative exhibits. D J Willrich project manager John Doe says: “We were brought on board by the designers, Haley Sharpe Design of Leicester, to consult on the AV perspective, and we worked with the fit-out company, the Hub, which is based in Redditch."

The exhibition features several informational kiosks, each of which focuses on different aspects of science and scientists. These are mostly based around a large touchscreen, with a PC or media server providing the video content. Each one includes either one or a pair of K-array Tornado-KT2C flush-mount point source speakers featuring a 2” high-efficiency neodymium cone driver, powered by a dedicated KA1-T2H amplifier module and accompanying KA-L15 power supply. This amplifier and speaker combination is essentially self-contained, eliminating the need to run speaker cables back to a central rack room, and is duplicated in multiple exhibits around the facility. The most critical part of the technical brief was to achieve good intelligibility at a decent level, so that the narration can be clearly heard, without overspill into adjacent or neighbouring exhibits.

Doe says: “The source material is mostly spoken word with some background music, and because the content is essentially medical and scientific in nature, with a lot of technical explanation, it was important that the narration was articulated with a high degree of clarity. We also needed to mix the level down a little and focus the sound at the listener in order for the message to be clearly understood.” The Tornado speakers' 5" diameter made them an ideal choice for the project, as they could be easily and discreetly flush-mounted into the displays, while their conical 90° dispersion pattern keeps sound coverage well controlled in the near field. The Tornado-dedicated plug-in micro amplifier modules are a neat solution for keeping everything compact, while being easy to manage from a speaker cabling perspective.

With up to 16 PCs putting those together, with multiple rack-mounted amplifiers to power the speakers, would have generated a lot of heat – something the D J Willrich team was keen to avoid. “The quality of audio coming from a speaker of such a small size, and being so well integrated into the exhibits, is what made K-array so well suited to this project,” says Doe. "We are delighted with the performance of the sound systems, and the clarity, articulation and discreet appearance of the speakers, which have helped to deliver an engaging visitor experience.”