"Let's Go Bowling" With EAW Commercial
The new ACME Bowling & Billiard Events Center in Tukwila, Washington, offers 40 bowling lanes in addition to seven billiards tables, a video game arcade, a lounge and even a restaurant staffed by professional chefs, all receiving premium sound reinforcement from a range of EAW Commercial loudspeakers.
Located just outside of Seattle, the 51,000-square-foot facility is perhaps more aptly billed as an “entertainment destination,” reflecting the transition of bowling to a social backdrop for family outings, private parties and corporate events. The venue’s professional caliber sound system, designed and installed by Kent, Washington-based Triamp Group, provides an exclamation point on the entertainment objective.
Our number one goal was to exceed every expectation for audio in a bowling center," explains Kevin Hill, vice president of Triamp Group. "Specifically, we were looking to provide exceptional clarity and musicality throughout the space - even with pins crashing in 40 lanes - and we wanted people to feel low-end energy pounding their chest as they approach the lane."
At the outset of the system design process, Hill set up a demo of leading loudspeaker candidates for ACME Bowl project planners, with the hands-down choice of the group proving to be EAW Commercial VR Series loudspeakers. "Compared to the other models, the VR Series offered much higher output before distortion and an overall better high-fidelity sound," he notes. "We also liked the look of them, with another added advantage that they would be quite easy to install."
"Hill chose to mount 20 VR62 (offering dual 6-inch cone woofers) loudspeakers above the 40 bowling lanes. Spaced equidistantly, all of these loudspeakers are secured via their mounting brackets to the backside of a ridge that runs above the lanes, carefully aimed backward and downward to insure that they produce a “blanket of sound” at the area between the back portion of each lane’s approach area and the concourse seating regions.
Bolstering the objective of pounding low-end energy, the VR62 models are joined by EAW Commercial VR Series VRS18 subwoofers. These single-18-inch-loaded units, with vented cabinets, are also positioned equidistantly, flush-mounted to the ceiling right behind the full-range loudspeakers and firing straight down.
The rear portion of the concourse area, from one end of the venue to the other, receives additional coverage from EAW Commercial CIS400 and CIS300 ceiling loudspeakers. Meanwhile, several VR61 full-range loudspeakers, offering the same mid/high-frequency components and coverage as the VR62 but with one 6-inch woofer, handle coverage in the billiards area, again in tandem with several VRS18 subwoofers.
Still more VR61 loudspeakers provide audio coverage in the venue’s expansive lounge, with VRS18 subs again on hand for pounding low-end when wanted. Finally, the arcade is outfitted with CIS400 ceiling loudspeakers, also spaced equidistantly throughout the space.
“It was gratifying to meet all of the client’s goals, and in particular, to provide true hi-fi performance and efficiency at a cost they view as more than reasonable,” Hill concludes.