By installing a low-profile, high-performance Electro-Voice EVID background music system, the owners of the Audi Centre in Poole, Dorset, have added extra functionality and versatility to their state-of-the-art car showroom, which can noPoole Audi is the only Audi-approved Centre in Dorset and West Hampshire, and has recently spent more than £2 million to create an architecturally impressive showroom and customer reception.

Poole Audi contracted the Complete Production Solutions Group (CPS) from Bournemouth to design and install an audio-visual system that would complement the stylish architectural interior of the new Centre. The brief called for high-quality audio throughout the showroom, a coherent system that could be used for background music and speech.

“The showroom is being used for many things besides selling cars,” explains Richard Colegate from CPS. “It is the perfect setting for car and automotive product launches, but it is also being used for presentations, cocktail parties and other events, appealing to the chamber of commerce and other local businesses.”

Set across two levels, the ten-car showroom has a wide curved glass frontage, which posed an acoustical challenge for CPS’s sound design. “Having reflective surfaces everywhere, lots of glass as well as the Audi cars, gave us a powerful reason to choose high-quality loudspeakers,” says Colegate. CPS has installed Electro-Voice throughout the showroom, selecting models from the EVID range.

“The Electro-Voice EVIDs have hi-fi quality frequency response, which gave us an excellent starting point for EQ-ing the system.” Colegate has specified EVID ceiling speakers, 12x C4.2s (the most compact in the range) for the upper level of the mezzanine, and for installation in the ceiling of the lower level. Four of the EVID 12.1 subwoofers have been installed on the lower level.

EVID 6.2 high-output speakers are mounted on the mezzanine balcony, facing the main floor of the showroom. “There is about 30ft of car display between the balcony and the glass front of the building, so we’ve angled the EVID 6.2s to throw into the floor space,” explains Colegate. “This provides the ideal combination; even coverage with plenty of SPL, delivered by low-profile unobtrusive cabinets, which have a curved design that appealed to the architect.”w be used for business events as well as vehicle display.