Located in a Grade II listed building in the heart of the City of London, the boardroom for a major but unnamed client required a powerful, flexible and visually discreet audio-visual solution.
AV and integration specialist for the project, Perfect Integration, quickly determined that an invisible sound solution was vital to satisfy the client’s aesthetic requirements. Amina Invisible Loudspeakers were chosen on the grounds that they can be incorporated into a room’s design and rendered invisible by the deployment of a range of surface materials.
This flexibility is said to have made them a perfect solution for the bespoke media wall in the boardroom, with book-matched exotic timber veneer and sap highlights across the floor to ceiling feature wall. The veneer has been lacquered in a satin finish to enhance the contrast between the grain and sap.
Perfect Integration installed Amina’s Evolution Series AIW550E Invisible Loudspeakers throughout the boardroom project, with three being built into the specialist joinery at the front in a classic, left-centre-right set-up, the centre channel being centred below the TV. The front speakers have been routed into the back of the veneered panels, with the two rear speakers installed and plastered-over within the ceiling in a left and right rear channel set up, in order to continue the clean and discreet nature of the whole installation.
The system has been designed to function in either a proper 5.1 Surround or a basic five-channel stereo, ensuring the best distribution of sound to meet the demands of the client.
“Amina Invisible Loudspeakers [AIW550Es] were the obvious choice for this aesthetically sensitive project,” says Chris Knight, MD of Perfect Integration. “In the past we have always plastered them in, but Amina advised that they work very well behind veneer so we opted for this route and were very impressed with the end result, so impressed in fact that we have utilised this technique in our new demo facility. They sound fantastic and as always, have zero visual impact.”
The active subwoofer and cable cubbies have been built into the legs of the bespoke built veneer matched 16-seat boardroom table, with subtle access panels and venting to ensure the most discreet installation possible while ensuring consistent coverage of computer connectivity and bass throughout.
The boardroom installation also made use of products from a number of other leading manufacturers, including Yamaha (RX-A1030 AV receiver), Sonance (SUB12-250 subwoofer), Samsung (65″ 8000 Series Screen), Crestron (7″ Touch Panel), Extron (two Cable Cubby 800s and two RGB to HDMI converters), Lutron (lighting control) and Salto (access control).
Meanwhile, in a wider context, Amina’s Babs Moore highlights the popularity of its Invisible loudspeakers for a variety of “high-end boardrooms that need to impress aesthetically and have high clarity room-filling sounds without ceiling acne. Amina has found invisible speakers a popular solution for both historic buildings wanting an authentic look and feel, as well as more modern minimalist designs where traditional visible ‘dinner plate’ circular ceiling speakers seriously impinge on the appearance of the room. A perfect example of this is the IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies) where Amina invisible loudspeakers were plastered into their London office, which was a listed building and they were so delighted with the result the London-based installer flew out to Bahrain to install Amina speakers in their new modern minimalist office there.”
