Auckland International Airport is the biggest and busiest airport in New Zealand—and it just got bigger with the completion of the first stage of an extension to its international baggage hall. The 300-foot extension is capable of housing more than 500 passengers and is one of several construction projects for the airport’s new combined international and domestic terminal. Auckland systems integrator Bartons Sound Systems installed the PA for the new space, which employs HARMAN’s JBL Intellivox DC280 digitally steerable, self-powered loudspeaker arrays.
“Until this project, nearly all of the PA loudspeakers used at Auckland International Airport were ceiling speakers or old-style PA horns for exterior areas,” said Rob Waddell of Bartons Sound Systems. “Aside from the fact that we wanted to install something much better, the open-ceiling arrangement of the new baggage area precluded the use of ceiling speakers.” Waddell also realised that installing a distributed system of conventional, cabinet-type loudspeakers and the cable to wire all of them up would not be cost effective.
