The Squaire – a portmanteau of the words ‘square’ and ‘air’ – was built adjacent to Frankfurt airport, Germany, between 2006 and 2011 as a joint venture by IVG estate builders and Fraport, Frankfurt airport. The offices use a Pan Beam digital steerable loudspeaker system, implemented for the emergency evacuation voice alarm system.
Architects JSK International Architects and engineers designed the building in the shape of a cruise ship. The building offers direct connection to Frankfurt airport by way of an adjoining corridor, and is linked to the railway station below.
Engineering company Michael Creydt in co-operation with acoustical design company, Carten Fromm, devised the evacuation system, with installation completed by Hattingen-based Lellman Communications Solutions.
The nine-floor building has 145,000sqm of space; the wide atrium, with shops, restaurants and conference and office areas, offered high reverberation times and reflective surfaces as challenges for the emergency evacuation system.
The audio solution contingent selected a Pan Acoustics Pan Beam loudspeaker system with digitally steerable technology to achieve the required speech intelligibility (STI) in spite of the difficult areas.
Lellman Communications Solutions subsequently installed a total of 26 Pan Beam PB16 active-digital steerable loudspeaker systems in the atrium, with six of the systems incorporated in the foyer of the Hilton hotel at the south end of the building.
Each loudspeaker can be individually set up, due to the internal DSP in each model, allowing each area to be optimised based on reverberation times and position. The system utilises the multiple beam technology by creating two beams that produce a very constant Sound Pressure Level (SPL) and good speech intelligibility (STI).
