Some say that IKEA is one of the only retail shops in the world where customers can regularly spend hours wandering around one of its stores without realizing how much time has passed. The latest store in South Korea uses Community Loudspeakers to provide calming background music to relax (and possibly entrance) IKEA customers.
Inter-M Corporation was appointed to fit the speakers in IKEA’s second store in Goyang.
The world’s largest furniture retailer has invested over KRW 300 billion in the construction of the new 164,000-square-meter building, which boasts three basement levels and four above-ground levels.
As part of its plans for a total of 6 stores in Korea by 2020, the location of the Goyang store was chosen to give the people of Seoul and the northern metropolitan area more convenient access to IKEA.
Inter-M handled the design, supply and commissioning of the new technology directly, although it utilized the services of Samjin Elex to assist with the installation.
For the very high ceiling height of the warehouse-style store, Byoung Dock Choi from Inter-M’s SI Team chose pendant Community Loudspeakers and a demonstration assured IKEA of the sound level and audio quality the system would provide.[related]
In addition to their acoustic performance, the speakers also provided an ideal aesthetic solution. The system designed by Inter-M uses a combination of Community’s DP6 and DP8 two-way, high output pendant loudspeakers.
The coaxial six and eight-inch designs use separate magnets for the LF and compression HF drivers, giving reduced distortion and industry-leading sensitivity.
In total, the system uses one hundred and five DP6 and sixty-two DP8 loudspeakers, driven by Inter-M DPA Series amplifiers. The multi-zone system uses Inter-M 7000 Series electronics throughout, providing input, control, monitoring and zoning.
Inter-M’s carefully calculated design took full advantage of the efficiency and wide coverage angle of the Community loudspeakers and achieved an even coverage of 80~85dB.
This comfortably exceeded the required specification and met requirements for clear announcements with quality background music for IKEA customers.
