Heron City, one of the largest shopping centres in Sweden, has put in a new MediaMatrix networked audio system as part of a major revamp.
Opened in 2001, the 46,000sqm facility, located in Huddinge, just outside of Stockholm, was designed to be an entertainment hub rather than just a large mall. The main attraction was a huge 18-screen multi-cinema complex (the first of its kind in Sweden), which could accommodate 4,000 people; driven originally by US giant AMC Entertainment International, the cinemas were sold to SF Cinema in 2003, and renamed Film Heron City.
Then, in March 2011, investment company NIAM injected millions into the development, part of which led to a brand new networked audio system with a Peavey Commercial Audio MediaMatrix backbone. Heron City has always used MediaMatrix, but the original system (with an AMX front-end) was in need of an upgrade, as audio needed to be distributed seamlessly to multiple zones. This led to the deployment of one MediaMatrix NION n3 Audio DSP processor, one NIO CAB 4o I/O box, and three NION CAB 8o I/O boxes.
“I first worked with MediaMatrix systems back in the 1990s, so I’ve always known my way around them,” said Jorgen Larsson of Rvrb, Peavey’s distributor for Sweden. “More outputs were needed than inputs – we had to send sound to the garage, the main mall, and some additional zones also; because Soliflex are now our partners, we supplied the kit, and they carried out the installation.”
When specifying the kit, the priority at Heron City was to install an easy-to-use, configurable, and reliable control system, therefore Rvrb opted to specify Kiosk2Go, which was released in the nick of time, just weeks before the completion of the installation.
“The Kiosk system felt very fresh, and was so simple to setup; you can just use an iPad to control the whole MediaMatrix system, taking an Ethernet cable to the machine room and using the wireless LAN, so it couldn’t be more straightforward, really,” Larsson explained. “As a result, this was a far more cost-effective solution; everybody understood it in no time at all.”
Soliflex completed the install at the beginning of February 2014, and according to the company’s co-owner, Fredrik Setterberg, the feedback has been extremely positive so far.
“With Kiosk2Go, you can control MediaMatrix from any HTML device, which makes it so simple,” he said. “On this project, it’s allowed for easy distribution of background music into a number of zones, and if they want to expand on the system, then that’s no problem, either; all in all, it was the perfect solution.”
