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Genelec speakers enhance experience at winery & spa

Ästad Vingård owners elevate customer experience with a Genelec Amart IP loudspeaker system throughout the vineyard's newly refurbished garden rooms and suites

Ästad Vingård, in Halland county, southern Sweden, is benefitting from an extensive Smart IP loudspeaker solution from Genelec – backed up by QSC and Crestron management and control – fitted throughout the vineyard’s newly refurbished garden rooms and suites.

Nestled between two lakes in the Akulla beech forests nature reserve, an entire experience has been created around the organic vineyard, including a beautiful hotel complete with a modern conference centre, a sumptuous spa and two restaurants – one of which has just been awarded a Michelin star. With the accent very much on the sensory experience, Ästad’s owners brought in Efterklang – expert in sound design, acoustics and vibration control – to create a sound concept that could be implemented throughout different areas of the venue, evoking the surrounding natural environment and harmonising with the other sensory impressions in the various spaces.

AV integration firm Special-Elektronik was called in by the project owner and installation company Granitor (previously known as Midroc Electro), to design the AV and lighting solution for the recent refurbishment of the Garden rooms and suites. Henrik Asp, who is in charge of projects at Special-Elektronik, explained that as they were working to an extremely tight timeframe it was imperative to find solutions that would minimise installation time as well as deliver the quality required. The Smart IP range of loudspeakers from Genelec were an “obvious” solution.

“Our brief from Ästad Vingård was to achieve the same functionality in the refurbished Garden rooms as in the rooms of the main hotel, a project that we helped them with a few years earlier,” explained Asp. “As part of that project I had already specified two rooms with Genelec loudspeakers, both of which are highly appreciated by guests and the owners.

“Knowing that Genelec would deliver the quality levels required by the customer, and mindful of the time constraints involved, I decided that a Smart IP solution using the compact 4420 models in the beautiful RAW aluminium finish would be ideal,” he continued. “The single CAT cable which supplies power, audio and control gave us the freedom and ability to implement all the IP music streams already used in the main system – including Efterklang’s amazing soundscapes – with excellent sound quality and a quick and easy installation.”

Special-Elektronik provided twenty-four 4420s – one for each room – which deliver all the audio in that space, ranging from audio from the TV, streaming from guests’ mobile devices, radio or room ambience sounds, a programmable ‘wake-up’ scene, and a ‘welcome back’ scene. Audio distribution throughout the venue is managed by QSC with control by Crestron. Finally, four of the more powerful 4040s from the 4000 Series grace one of the conference rooms in the main hotel and the gym, located in the luxurious Sinnenas Spa.

“Ästad Vingård prides itself on its nature-inspired, sustainable approach to everything they do,” explained Asp. “Their wine is organic and along with a Michelin star for the excellence of the food creation at their ÄNG restaurant, they have also been awarded the guide’s green star for their meticulous work on sustainability, plus a host of other awards for sustainable business practices. It therefore stands to reason that they prefer to use suppliers who share the same ‘green’ mindset – and Genelec is a great example of this. The RAW finish is even better – not only does the natural look of the recycled aluminium enclosure match perfectly with the Ästad aesthetic, but the RAW versions require no paint and less finishing material – making them an even more ecologically friendly choice.”

Efterklang’s Alexander Kassberg, one of the sound designers involved in the project, added: “Although our role was strictly content-related in this instance, we are of course familiar with Genelec and have used their loudspeakers in several of our projects. In our view, Genelec loudspeakers are extremely well suited for this high-end concept at Ästad Vingård thanks to their high definition, broad soundfield and overall quality. Smart IP offers integrators a huge amount of flexibility for their designs and makes installation very straightforward. Finally, the RAW finish that was used here is a perfect complement to the natural environment evoked by our soundscapes and Ästad’s beautiful design.”