KMART DISTRIBUTION CENTRE
How Arc tackled the warehouse-sized challenge of designing a sound system for a 3.5-hectare distribution centre.
Kmart is in just about every large shopping centre anywhere, in every city, and the stores themselves can be huge â so you can imagine how big the Kmart distribution centres must be, catering to all the outlets in the region at a 24/7 pace. In this instance, it was a new distribution centre being built from the ground up. The main warehouse alone occupies an area of more than 3.5 hectares â thatâs one heck of a âstorage shedâ, for want of a better description. A PA system with background music was specified to cover the entire floorspace, presenting a massive AV project to match the scale of the overall construction.
Not surprisingly, within the whole space the facility is split into various zones, each of which would pose different problems according to the activities taking place in that zone and factors such as ambient noise â for example, some sections might use heavy forklifts and machinery while others are just shuffling around boxes of paper clips.
THE CHALLENGE
Arc was awarded the project and Jason Buckley and his team immediately set about identifying the primary issues they would face. The most obvious was the staggering size of the place, not just in square metres but also height. In some areas the roof was 15m high and the resulting acoustics involving reflections, delay times from any speakers mounted that high, and the SPL required, all combined to create some head-scratching challenges to overcome.
Because the facility was a new build in the making, there were plenty of pros and cons to consider. On the plus side, like any work site, the access to install the PA gear wasnât hampered as it might be in a distribution centre thatâs operational. However, close coordination was needed with all the other trades trying to stake their claim to certain work areas to avoid frayed tempers and risking drawn battery drills from ten paces at dawn.
An unexpected obstacle â or âobstaclesâ to be correct â was the prolific placement of fire sprinklers throughout the building. These were mounted every three metres and often got in the way of mounting speakers in ideal locations for sound dispersion. It worked the other way too. The speakers couldnât be located in such a way that they might interfere with the water dispersion should the system be triggered.
Last and definitely not least, it was estimated that the distribution centre would have a high level of ambient noise pretty much all over the facility, but Arc couldnât track down any reliable data as to how loud it might be. Taking measurements provided some useful information while at the same time not really giving any true indications of how noisy the centre would be with everything operating at one hundred percent capacity.
THE FIX
Arc came up with a system design which relied primarily on inDESIGNâs MH158 music horns â over 80 units in all. The MH158 is a two-way, middle/long distance 100V loudspeaker. Thanks to its impressively long throw and predictable coverage, the MH158 solved the problem that, due to the buildingâs size and layout, the speakers were often a fair distance from the area they needed to service. In addition to this, 37 inDESIGN EZ 8-15 two-way coaxial ceiling speakers were installed in sections where a ceiling-mount was needed, with a further seven of the smaller EZ 5-10 ceiling-mounted speakers in some tighter spaces.
Everything was allocated into five distinct zones, each with four choices of BGM sources. (Itâs always fun to try imagining just who gets to choose the BGM each shift â maybe a day of death metal music if performance targets are lagging?) As far as that mystery factor of how loud the ambient noise might be, Arc cleverly resolved that problem by installing microphones that constantly measure the sound levels and use DSP to automatically adjust the zone volumes to suit.
As Jason Buckley explains, âWe were completely confident that the inDESIGN products would do a great job and they certainly have. The coverage is fantastic. The only real unknown was always around the scale of the installation, and ultimately how it would all sound once completed. Thereâs only so much you can model on a computer! We kept that constantly in mind, thinking on our feet and tweaking the speaker placement when necessary. We talked regularly with NAS who are great in advising about the best products to employ and how.â
THE RESULT
Shopping centres are forever getting bigger, and the outlets inside them are likewise growing in size. The new Kmart distribution centre is likely a glimpse into the future when the supporting infrastructure for these kinds of organisations will present further, enormous-in-scale challenges in AV design and integration. Thanks to Jason Buckley and his crew at Arc, and the ongoing support of NAS and its catalogue of inDESIGN products, those challenges can always be met with solutions that create excellent results.
âNAS is a close and valued partner with Arc in so many of our installations,â Jason says. âWe are thrilled with the results and the overall performance of the system is even better than expected.â
Bring on the next storage shed. Theyâve got it covered.
Further information on the full range of inDESIGN products can be found here.
FEATURED PRODUCTS
MORE CASE STUDIES
KMART DISTRIBUTION CENTRE
FEATURED PRODUCTS
A full gear list can be found at the bottom of this case study.
How Arc tackled the warehouse-sized challenge of designing a sound system for a 3.5-hectare distribution centre.
Kmart is in just about every large shopping centre anywhere, in every city, and the stores themselves can be huge â so you can imagine how big the Kmart distribution centres must be, catering to all the outlets in the region at a 24/7 pace. In this instance, it was a new distribution centre being built from the ground up. The main warehouse alone occupies an area of more than 3.5 hectares â thatâs one heck of a âstorage shedâ, for want of a better description. A PA system with background music was specified to cover the entire floorspace, presenting a massive AV project to match the scale of the overall construction.
Not surprisingly, within the whole space the facility is split into various zones, each of which would pose different problems according to the activities taking place in that zone and factors such as ambient noise â for example, some sections might use heavy forklifts and machinery while others are just shuffling around boxes of paper clips.
THE CHALLENGE
Arc was awarded the project and Jason Buckley and his team immediately set about identifying the primary issues they would face. The most obvious was the staggering size of the place, not just in square metres but also height. In some areas the roof was 15m high and the resulting acoustics involving reflections, delay times from any speakers mounted that high, and the SPL required, all combined to create some head-scratching challenges to overcome.
Because the facility was a new build in the making, there were plenty of pros and cons to consider. On the plus side, like any work site, the access to install the PA gear wasnât hampered as it might be in a distribution centre thatâs operational. However, close coordination was needed with all the other trades trying to stake their claim to certain work areas to avoid frayed tempers and risking drawn battery drills from ten paces at dawn.
An unexpected obstacle â or âobstaclesâ to be correct â was the prolific placement of fire sprinklers throughout the building. These were mounted every three metres and often got in the way of mounting speakers in ideal locations for sound dispersion. It worked the other way too. The speakers couldnât be located in such a way that they might interfere with the water dispersion should the system be triggered.
Last and definitely not least, it was estimated that the distribution centre would have a high level of ambient noise pretty much all over the facility, but Arc couldnât track down any reliable data as to how loud it might be. Taking measurements provided some useful information while at the same time not really giving any true indications of how noisy the centre would be with everything operating at one hundred percent capacity.
THE FIX
Arc came up with a system design which relied primarily on inDESIGNâs MH158 music horns â over 80 units in all. The MH158 is a two-way, middle/long distance 100V loudspeaker. Thanks to its impressively long throw and predictable coverage, the MH158 solved the problem that, due to the buildingâs size and layout, the speakers were often a fair distance from the area they needed to service. In addition to this, 37 inDESIGN EZ 8-15 two-way coaxial ceiling speakers were installed in sections where a ceiling-mount was needed, with a further seven of the smaller EZ 5-10 ceiling-mounted speakers in some tighter spaces.
Everything was allocated into five distinct zones, each with four choices of BGM sources. (Itâs always fun to try imagining just who gets to choose the BGM each shift â maybe a day of death metal music if performance targets are lagging?) As far as that mystery factor of how loud the ambient noise might be, Arc cleverly resolved that problem by installing microphones that constantly measure the sound levels and use DSP to automatically adjust the zone volumes to suit.
As Jason Buckley explains, âWe were completely confident that the inDESIGN products would do a great job and they certainly have. The coverage is fantastic. The only real unknown was always around the scale of the installation, and ultimately how it would all sound once completed. Thereâs only so much you can model on a computer! We kept that constantly in mind, thinking on our feet and tweaking the speaker placement when necessary. We talked regularly with NAS who are great in advising about the best products to employ and how.â
THE RESULT
Shopping centres are forever getting bigger, and the outlets inside them are likewise growing in size. The new Kmart distribution centre is likely a glimpse into the future when the supporting infrastructure for these kinds of organisations will present further, enormous-in-scale challenges in AV design and integration. Thanks to Jason Buckley and his crew at Arc, and the ongoing support of NAS and its catalogue of inDESIGN products, those challenges can always be met with solutions that create excellent results.
âNAS is a close and valued partner with Arc in so many of our installations,â Jason says. âWe are thrilled with the results and the overall performance of the system is even better than expected.â
Bring on the next storage shed. Theyâve got it covered.
Further information on the full range of inDESIGN products can be viewed here.
GEAR LIST
inDESIGN iD-MH158 music horns
- Freq. Response: 80Hz-18kHz ±3dB
- Maximum SPL: 117dBÂ
- Dispersion: 100° x 100°
- Weight: 10kg
inDESIGN EZ 5-10 ceiling speakers
- Freq. Response: 55Hz-20kHz
- Max. SPL: 87dB
- Dispersion: Conical
- Weight: 1.0kg
inDESIGN EZ 8-15 ceiling speakers
(replaced by EZFIT-8)
- Freq. Response: 50Hz-20kHz
- Max. SPL: 88dB
- Dispersion: Conical
- Weight: 1.5kg