Genelec’s Smart IP loudspeaker system has been installed in Visions of Alvar Aalto, an immersive exhibition at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki. The venue, designed by Aalto and commissioned in 1962 as the city’s concert and congress building, was renovated between 2022 and 2025, and the exhibition was conceived to give locals and tourists a new reason to visit.
The installation comprises 47 Genelec 4430 loudspeakers and seven 4436 pendant models, all using a single network cable for audio, power and control. The company says this allowed the loudspeakers to be positioned and reconfigured easily while the exhibition concept developed, and avoided the separate power and audio cabling a conventional active or passive system would need. AV integrator 4Business Oy carried out the installation.
The 4430s use Genelec’s custom RAL colour options to blend into each zone. In Prelude, five Cobalt Blue (RAL 5013) units play Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia, while nine Tarpaulin Grey (RAL 7010) units create a transition with creek and woodland sounds. Eleven Black units deliver a forest soundscape in Land of Forests, and 18 Traffic Grey (RAL 7042) units reproduce pencil sketching, distant piano and environmental sounds in Together. Four White units serve My Aalto. The pendants are used in Power of Light, where their downward-firing design directs sound towards visitors below.
Aki Päivärinne, lead sound designer at OiOi Collective, said: “In a space called ‘Power of Light’, the sound of piano chords mimics dancing rays of light. It seemed a clear aesthetic choice to use Genelec’s pendant Smart IP loudspeakers here as they distribute sound into the room in the same manner as Aalto’s light concepts.”
Nathan Hayward, project manager at 4Business, added: “The recent renovation was a big consideration during the physical installation. Smart IP’s single network cable for audio, power, and control allowed the loudspeakers to be easily positioned and reconfigured as the exhibition concept developed. A conventional active or passive loudspeaker system would have required separate power and audio cabling, potentially increasing infrastructure and limiting design adaptability.”
Ilari Suonpää, technical manager at Finlandia Hall, added: “Since opening, we have been delighted by the response. The exhibition has even exceeded our expectations, and, most importantly, achieved what we set out to do: create a compelling new reason for people to visit Finlandia Hall and encourage them to return.”
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