Meetings & Announcements

Meeting Report: Klipsch Headquarters Tour

Posted on by Nate Sparks
Attendees check out the anechoic chamber used for design validation and prototype testing at Klipsch World Headquarters in Indianapolis
Attendees check out the anechoic chamber used for design validation and prototype testing at Klipsch World Headquarters in Indianapolis.

Meeting Topic: Tour of Klipsch World Headquarters

Moderator Name: Jay Dill

Speaker Name: Trevor Gibson, Klipsch; Gary Mielke, Tech Rep; Stan Stivers, Klipsch; Trey Cannon, Klipsch

Other business or activities at the meeting: Notes about upcoming virtual career panel, information about Klipsch internships, and information about AES membership.

Meeting Location: Indianapolis, IN, USA

Summary

The meeting opened with host Trevor Gibson from Klipsch providing some history and evolution of Klipsch, started by Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Klipsch in 1946 in Hope, Arkansas while stationed at the Southwest Proving Grounds. Klipsch pioneered corner horn loudspeaker design (which is still manufactured today) and developed a reputation for being a design-driven company, with a focus on quality sound. At present, Klipsch boasts its position as the number one selling speaker company in both the US and Canada, with an export market that outpaces domestic sales, and includes a number of commercial partnerships. More recently, Klipsch has rebranded as Premium Audio Company, as they now serve as owner or importer for such brands as Jamo, Integra, Pioneer Elite, and Onkyo.

Following the opening presentation, the attendees split into three groups to rotate through different sections of the facilities. The first of these groups moved to an outdoor courtyard area to view and listen to a three-speaker landscape loudspeaker system produced by Klipsch, featuring a half-buried subwoofer (unburied for the demo) and a network-controlled amplifier and DSP unit with 110° coverage area.

The second station took attendees back in the building for a look inside the prototyping and engineering facilities. The prototyping lab provides engineers with a full array of 3D printing and CNC capabilities for realizing models and testing novel designs in the adjacent testing facilities. The premiere testing room is the in-house anechoic chamber, built from a separate slab and resting on a coil-spring suspension. The room boasts a 24dB C noise floor, despite being mere hundreds of feet from a busy interstate highway. The room also features a unique door design with a corner entry via a four-sided spinning door mounted on an axil. This allows for differing conditions including hard boundary and anechoic conditions, all sealed with inflatable O- and C-rings.

The final station brought attendees to the listening lab where a set of Klipsch Forte three-way loudspeakers powered by tube-based monoblock amps, providing an exciting listening experience to round out the evening.

Written By: Brett Leonard

Klipsch Headquarters Tour

Posted on by Nate Sparks

Save the date now for our next in person meeting and facility tour. We’ll release more details soon

Date:  Tuesday, September 27, 2022

Time:  7:00 PM EDT

Location:  Klipsch Worldwide Headquarters (3502 Woodview Trce #200, Indianapolis, IN 46268)

Free Registration Required:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/380587977887

Register

Join us for our next section meeting and a tour of Klipsch Worldwide Headquarters

Meeting Report: Grand Junction Plaza Tour

Posted on by Nate Sparks
Indiana Section members discuss the design and construction of the acoustic diffusion designed into the exterior of Grand Junction Plaza’s cafe building with park superintendent Chris McConnell.

Meeting Topic: Technical Tour of Westfield’s Grand Junction Plaza

Moderator Name: Jay Dill

Speaker Name: Russ Hopple, IMEG Corp; David Wright, IMEG Corp; Brian McCullagh, New Era Technologies; Chris McConnell, Westfield Parks & Rec

Other business or activities at the meeting: Brief announcements were made about membership, membership levels (associate vs. full member) and the change in name to the Indiana Section was officially announced.

Meeting Location: Grand Junction Plaza, Westfield, IN, USA

Summary

The Indiana Section toured Grand Junction Plaza, a unique, new six-acre park in Westfield with multiple zone-based audio systems and a number of performance venues, all with integrated wireless control. Russ Hopple and David Wright from the local engineering firm on the project opened our tour with a discussion of the planning and design of the park. The park was envisaged with an ice rink, a smaller amphitheater adjacent to a creek running through the park, a permanent structure for a café, and a large amphitheater with a band shell. The ability to use the park for a variety of events, or consolidate all technical functionality to support a single large concert was considered from the outset, along with maintaining a semblance of acoustic support from the surrounding buildings. In particular, special consideration was taken with the exterior design of the café situated opposite from the main stage, which features a faceted exterior stone wall facing the amphitheater to provide diffusion. Chris McConnell, the park superintendent, joined the discussion and explained that the park opted to purchase all audio systems, with the main stage featuring L-Acoustic line arrays with smaller center hangs and front fills, with Danley and Renkus-Heinz all-weather speakers distributed throughout the park. The system is managed via a Q-SYS platform for day-to-day operation, and Yamaha CL3 connected via Dante serves for larger shows, along with a full complement of analog lines. The FOH position is connected through subterranean conduit terminated in a buried cement electrical vault, which in turn houses a stainless steel outdoor electrical box populated with Neutrik weather-resistant connectors.

The constraints of municipal funding necessitated value engineering during the design phase. The most impactful change was the decision to defer construction of the band shell. The shell included an enclosed area which housed the central machine room for network and audio infrastructure across the park. Brian McCullagh from the audio integrator on the projected described the changes to cable runs, including increased distances, caused by the move of the machine room to the adjacent green room building. Knowing that the rack room may be relocated when the band shell is completed, the installers left cabling to allow wiring to be pulled back to the original location. Likewise, rigging for the center array was converted to a temporary solution due to the band shell change. The tour concluded with listening to the main amphitheater sound system.

Written By: Brett Leonard

Grand Junction Plaza Tour

Posted on by Nate Sparks

Date:  Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Time:  7:00 PM EDT

Location:  Grand Junction Plaza (225 S Union St, Westfield, IN 46074)

Free Registration Required:  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/380587977887

Register

The 6 acre Plaza just opened to the public in Spring of 2022. Featuring multiple venues with audio systems permanently installed outdoors, the main attraction is the Stage Pavilion and Amphitheatre Lawn.

Representatives of the audio design team at IMEG Corp will be on hand to discuss the processes of the design challenges, as well as representatives from New Era Technologies for their part in the installation. We’ll also hear from the Westfield Parks and Rec’s as to the day to day usages.

This should be a very fun and informational event providing attendees with view points from the design, implementation and owner/usage at one of the regions newest event venues!

Meeting Report: Section Meeting & CEDIA Tour

Posted on by Nate Sparks
Central Indiana Audio Engineering Society at CEDIA Headquarters

Meeting Topic: CEDIA Headquarters Tour

Moderator Name: Jay Dill

Speaker Name: Steve Rissi, CEDIA

Other business or activities at the meeting: Brief announcements about membership renewal, bylaws voting, and tentative upcoming events.

Meeting Location: CEDIA Headquarters (Fishers, IN, USA)

Summary

The Central Indiana Section held its first in-person meeting since the start of the pandemic with a tour of CEDIA (Custom Electronics Design and Installation Association) headquarters in Fishers, IN. The event was generously sponsored by CEDIA and AES member Gavin Haverstick. Host Steve Rissi from CEDIA provided some context on the association, its focus on residential technology, and its dedication towards education and industry advancement.

The tour began in CEDIA’s experience center, which showcases cutting edge technology for the home, including advanced video, audio, lighting, power, and automation systems. The first room featured a large pair of Meridian Audio loudspeakers with onboard digital processing, a decoupled mid and high-frequency enclosure, and integrated class D amplifiers. The second room featured an on-wall audio-video installation with miniature line arrays from K-Array. Another highlight of the experience center was the adjacent glass-walled machine room, housing the center’s automation systems, media players, and amplifiers, as well as dedicated power with a massive toroidal isolation transformer.

The crown jewel of the experience center is CEDIA’s bespoke 9-seat home theatre, with a Barco projector and Dolby Atmos audio. The room includes fully isolated exterior shell and a 300-pound cement-core door to provide sufficient mass for acoustic isolation. Likewise, the projector is isolated in a dedicated projector booth and amplifiers, processors, and media players are all housed in the isolated machine room. Steve presented a variety of material from major motion pictures to showcase the audio and video clarity. This extended listening period allowed attendees to move throughout the space, listening to consistency from seat to seat and at the perimeter of the room. The room utilizes a distributed array of four subwoofers to homogenize low frequency response across the listening area, which was very apparent as one moved to the boundaries from the seating area.

The tour ended with walk through of CEDIA’s unique training facilities. Aside from typical classroom and workbench space, CEDIA headquarters features a number of “laboratories” for experimentation with home theatre setup. These rooms allow students to configure screens, loudspeakers, subwoofers, acoustic treatment, and even seating to measure the effects of changes in configuration. Another unique training area featured a variety of typical residential and light commercial construction wall segments for students to practice cable pulling and mounting of any variety of audio, video, or home automation devices.

Written By: Brett Leonard