BSS Audio Provides Transparent Audio Through Swedish Glass Hotel Kosta Boda

In a unique installation that provides a comprehensive audio network, the Kosta Boda Hotel in Sweden has deployed a BSS Audio Soundweb London system for audio processing and distribution. Opened in June, the hotel is the first constructed entirely of glass and is located in the province of Småland, in the south of the country. The hotel also contains a spa, restaurants, a glass bar and a conference center. The system’s design was developed by Swedish Harman distributor Septon Electronics AB.

The Soundweb London system needed to distribute four sources of background music or sound effects into 21 zones throughout the building, cater for 10 conference rooms with local audio inputs and microphones, and finally be able to mute everything on command from a fire/evacuation system.

The signal distribution hub has been constructed around three technical rooms, including the master control room. A Soundweb London BLU-160 and multiple BLU-120 devices, with configurable I/O, are set in the main room, with a single BLU-120 device plus BLU-BOB in each of the other two. These are connected by the new BSS Audio digital audio bus, offering 256 channels of low-latency, fault-tolerant audio on a single Cat 6 Ethernet cable.

Jan Hedlund, manager at Septon Electronics said he was delighted that they had been able to notch up the spec. “Originally the Hotel didn’t have a lot of idea about sourcing products — a hi-fi solution really wouldn’t have worked with an installation of this complexity,” stated Hedlund. So a year ago he visited the site and sold the concept of Soundweb to the owners. And in June this year the audio network was commissioned.

On the ground floor, the Soundweb architecture has also been programmed with a separate gain structure for when the Glass Bar is used as an overspill area for the adjacent Conference Room. “It means we can leak out the sound from the conference mics through the bar’s ceiling speakers,” states Hedlund.

This is controlled from the local BLU-10 programmable touch screen remote — while the remaining two BLU-10 controllers reside at the dedicated ground floor and first floor Reception desks, and offer central control. Meanwhile, the seven BLU-3 remotes control local sources in the conference rooms and the pool area.

The system feeds out to multiples of JBL Control Contractor loudspeakers — from Control 29 loudspeakers in the Conference Room and the Glass Bar annex, where a live stage will be added, down to Control 26CT loudspeakers in the pool and bar areas (supplemented by Control 19CST 8” ceiling subs) and Control 24CT Micros in the corridors and peripheral areas.

Kosta Boda Art Hotel sales executive Anders Rickardsson, who is responsible for the equipment functionality, says this was one of many feats accomplished by the technical team. “They have managed to work within the sensitive design aesthetics by offering a discreet solution, at the same time providing clear, evenly-distributed and highly intelligible sound throughout the many different environments within the hotel. Operationally, the system presented us with flexibility and a number of different options,” stated Rickardsson.