BOWERY HOTEL
New York, NY 10003
The Bowery Terrace, an event space within the Bowery Hotel in New York City, has a capacity of 600 guests. Mike Sinclair was retained to upgrade the overall audio quality while reducing noise intrusion into the guest rooms directly above. Mike chose Fulcrum Acoustic Passive Cardioid Loudspeaker systems to provide the needed output, fidelity, and control to meet the seemingly conflicting project needs.
Challenges
The loudspeakers are mounted near the ceiling for aesthetic reasons, yet the proximity to hotel rooms on the floor above has previously resulted in frequent noise complaints from guests.
Speech intelligibility and overall audio clarity has been difficult in the event space with brick walls.
Solution
Fulcrum’s Passive Cardioid Technology™ decreases excessive rear radiation from subwoofers and full-range systems. The result is less indirect/reflected low frequency energy in reverberant spaces. Additionally, the reduced rear radiation resulted in less overall sound energy traveling upward through the Bowery’s ceiling structure. “Bowery had tried everything,” says Mike Sinclair. “Putting in a false ceiling, spraying foam, acoustic home remedies…but the sound was still getting through to the rooms above. Given their high-end clientele, I knew we couldn’t dance around this. I needed a solution that would provide excellent sound quality and help reduce sound in the guest rooms above. The first thing that came to my head was passive cardioid.”
Sinclair selected Fulcrum CCX1200, CCX1277, and CCX1295 loudspeakers with CS118 subwoofers for this project. Fulcrum Acoustic’s CCX12 Coaxial Cardioid Loudspeakers combine Passive Cardioid Technology™ with Fulcrum’s unique coaxial design to integrate impressive low frequency control into a compact, high-output coaxial design. The result is full, warm, controlled sound even at high volume; perfect for an event space. “Fulcrum’s coaxial loudspeakers create serious power in a smaller cabinet,” continues Sinclair. “This helped with the aesthetic of the space. Because of the compact and lightweight size of the CCX12 loudspeakers, we were able to suspend them using spring-type vibration isolators rather than mounting directly to the structure. This helped reduce structure-borne vibrations which could travel to the guest rooms above.”
“It sounded amazing,” says Larry Oakes, Production Manager at the Bowery Hotel. “We couldn’t believe how loud it could go without disrupting the rooms upstairs. It’s the first time I’m truly happy with the sound in our room since it opened 13 years ago.”
Originally published in collaboration with Fulcrum Acoustics: https://www.fulcrum-acoustic.com/case-studies/bowery-hotel/