A new immersive audio installation at the OLVI Brewery Museum sees Genelec sound brewed to perfection in a custom designed five-sided space.
The new installation, titled The Spirit of OLVI, is built into a custom designed space that offers a multi-sensory experience to visitors, using light, image, vibration, and spatial sound to explore the 145-year history of Finland’s last large independent brewery.
The bespoke system is powered by a Genelec loudspeaker setup, supplied by Finnish integrator, 4business.
The integrator led the technical design of the museum, alongside creative partner OiOi Collective, specifying Genelec Smart IP active loudspeakers for the project, which allowed for power over a single network cable without external amps, extra signal or power cabling.
Five AIW26 in-wall loudspeakers were installed inside the five-sided space, supported by eight 4430s distributed across the sides, rear and ceiling, with a tightly controlled array of four 5041 in-wall subwoofers behind the space’s asymmetrical display surface.
Four Clark Synthesis tactile transducers, synced to the room’s soundtrack, are hidden beneath the floor, bringing a physical dimension to the sounds that visitors are experiencing.
Each room in the museum was scored and mixed independently, with custom multichannel audio for each space. 4business built the playback systems to handle complex, multichannel audio, while ensuring that the system remained easy to use for the end user.
Outside the immersive room, an additional exhibit features six Genelec 4420 Smart IP loudspeakers and two 7350 studio subwoofers, designed to reproduce atmospheric audio that evokes the textures and smells of brewing ingredients.
The museum’s cellar area also boasts an additional four 4420s, delivering a surreal landscape as if listeners are hearing the fermentation process from inside the barrel.
The most technically complex aspect of the installation, the Symphony of the Machines, is a knetic audiovisual installation built from recordings of the OLVI factory equipment, harnessing eight 4420 loudspeakers and two 7350 subwoofers to form a surround system to bring the rhythmic clanks, clicks, and hiss of the brewery’s industrial kit to life.