Telfair Museum in Savannah, Georgia has upgraded to a K-array Kobra loudspeaker system as part of an overhaul of the institution’s AV system, carried out by local AV consultants Michael Gaster + Associates (MG+A).
The museum first opened in the 1880s, going from a renovated family mansion into a cultural institution with three architecturally significant buildings. It also has a permanent collection of around 4,000 works of art from America and Europe, dating from the 18th to 21st centuries.
The brief for MG+A specified the speaker system needed to improve intelligibility in the reverberant gallery space and it also needed to have a minimal visual impact on the space.
K-array KK52 Kobra loudspeakers were chosen and paired with the KKS50 subwoofer due to the impressive size to output ratio. The Kobra, with its wide horizontal and relatively narrow vertical patterns, satisfied the coverage requirements of the space, while its slender and paintable physical characteristics (the speakers were customised to match the colour of the gallery walls) met the client’s unobtrusive requirements.
“It is a challenge to work in such a historic space,” said system designer Michael Gaster. “We discovered partway through the installation that the structure we were working on was constructed around the items we needed to uninstall. The museum carpenter had to be called in and brought up to date on the installation.
“The system is married well into the décor of the museum and its sound performance is very impressive.”
