• Case Studies

Tannoy’s CMS 401DCe ‘eyeball’ ceiling speaker has been selected by French audio installation company Audiolite for use on Brittany Ferries newest vessels.

The €120m cruise ferry mv Armorique has been designed specifically for use between Plymouth and the Breton port of Roscoff and entered service in February 2009. The ferry operator had a clear requirement for high quality, intelligible distributed sound throughout the passenger deck areas of its new luxury cruise ferry. Audiolite installed 41 CMS 401DCe ceiling speakers across several decks. The CMS401 DCe features Tannoy's exclusive point source Dual Concentric driver. The mid-bass and tweeter sections are coincidentally aligned to a true point source in a bid to create a wide and controlled dispersion for optimum coverage and a smooth, uniform frequency response over a wide area of coverage.

The mv Armorique is one of the larger ferries in Brittany Ferries’ fleet, and the largest purpose-built to serve the Plymouth to Roscoff route, but it isn’t the first to feature Tannoy’s ceiling speakers. The company’s newest freight-only vessel also boasts 21 CMS 401 DCe speakers. The Cotentin provides new capacity on the Poole to Cherbourg service during the week and, at the weekend, opens up a bypass service to Santander, enabling transporters to avoid the weekend driving ban in France. The new €80m freighter will provide space for 120 articulated vehicles and accommodation for freight drivers will be offered in 120 two-berth, en-suite cabins.

Audiolite, in conjunction with distributor DV2, installed Lab.gruppen C-Series amplifiers to power the systems on both ferries.

Audiolite’s Franck Fily said: “The ultimate goal was to find a system that could deliver different programming to distinct passenger deck areas. Brittany-Ferries also insisted on high-quality products, to ensure the operation of the ship 24/7.”

He went on to explain, “Regarding loudspeakers, we had two primary constraints. The first was the size, as we could not exceed 200mm diameter due to the ferries ceiling structure. The second constraint was sound, the ceiling heights are quite low and so we needed a product which had very controlled directivity.”

“We are very pleased with the final result and hope to continue our relationship with Tannoy. Thank you to Mark Trense of Tannoy France as well as Pascal Minier of Brittany Ferries, with whom we worked on the case.”