The Science Museum of Virginia upgraded projection, lighting and audio systems at its Richmond and Danville planetariums, turning to Harman to deliver immersive sound.
Nestled within Richmond’s historic Broad Street Station building, the Science Museum of Virginia spans almost 21,000 sq m and offers interactive exhibitions on wellness, innovation and the physical sciences. Among its prominent features is The Dome, a five-story planetarium theatre.
As part of its renovations, the Science Museum of Virginia modernised The Dome - as well as the planetarium at its affiliate location Danville Science Center - to offer visitors enhanced immersive audio experiences. Working with Harman, Jamie Gorman, principle at Acuity Audiovisual spearheaded the design and installation of a planetarium audio solution, using JBL Professional CBT Series loudspeakers.
“The Science Museum Planetarium projects presented a unique and exciting opportunity for our integration team,” said Gorman. “While immersive planetarium audio is not our specialty, partnering with Harman Professional’s engineering afforded us access to expert resources for optimising our design and delivering an awesome audio experience for Science Museum patrons.”
The challenge of creating an immersive experience within a planetarium necessitated speaker devices capable of reaching the maximum percentage of seated patrons from each location. Gorman identified JBL CBT loudspeakers as a suitable choice due to their wide horizontal coverage, linear frequency response and high SPL output. In the case of side surround locations, Gorman used horizontally angled CBT columns to ensure perpendicular coverage to the audience seating. Additionally, Gorman integrated CBT1000E low-frequency extensions for the front L-C-R channels, yielding enhanced vertical directivity and improved volume consistency from the front to the rear of the planetarium.
Gorman integrated smaller JBL CBT70J-1 and CBT70JE-1 loudspeakers at the Science Museum of Virginia’s affiliate Danville Science Center planetarium to ensure an immersive audio experience tailored to the venue's dimensions. Gorman equipped both facilities with AE Series subwoofers. Additionally, Gorman strategically placed JBL SCS surround speakers at overhead locations in both planetariums, further enhancing the enveloping effect and creating a truly immersive auditory environment.
By routing the audio tracks directly from the audio servers' Dante outputs to Crown DCi Series amplifiers, Gorman’s signal chain remains in the digital format from start to finish.
