 Built in 1913 in Grand
Rapids, MI, the Pantlind Hotel was named after a famous family of local
hoteliers who aimed to accommodate the large number of furniture buyers
who frequented the city. Its designers, the architectural firm Warren &
Wetmore of New York, NY, set out to create a level of splendor
reminiscent of their more famous projects, which include Grand Central
Station and the Biltmore Hotel. Today, the luxurious hotel still takes
its name from a local business, but with a much more recognizable name;
the Amway Grand Plaza four-star hotel was acquired and renovated by the
corporation, which is head-quartered nearby.
The sound system at the Amway hotel ballroom consists of TOA H-2's
in the balcony area and TOA H-1's
on the face of the balcony facing the center of the room, in addition to
the HB-1 subwoofer added to the room to give
it full fidelity.
The Amway Grand Plaza
is a four-star hotel that possesses a number of amenities in addition to
its guest lodgings, including a large ballroom on the main floor that
once housed a bank. This newly renovated, grandly decorated room serves
a variety of purposes. While Amway itself holds a number of trade
meetings there, other companies also use the space for conferences. In
fact, the first group to use the room under its new format was the IRS.
Additionally, the ballroom can be utilized for large-scale parties,
promotional dinners and even hosts the occasional wedding.
But having a room
with this many purposes—not to mention this many pillars and high
ceilings— requires that the structure provide a great deal of
flexibility. One of the most important aspects of this flexibility comes
in the form of sound design.
In search of an
expert, Amway needed to look no further than its own backyard. Ken
Wieringa, who makes Grand Rapids his home-town, started designing the
sound system for the Amway Grand Hotel ballroom last November. “The
challenge right from the start,” Wieringa recalled, “was that the sound
had to be seamless, regard-less of the level of complexity of the sound
system used for different types of events.”
Wieringa and his team
ran into a few obstacles in the early stages of the project. “We knew
that we were going to use the TOA
F-121C
under the balconies from the start of the job. And we were going to use
sound tubes within the chandeliers. But the chandeliers wouldn’t allow
for a fitted sound tube that was pleasing to the eye.”
 System controls are located in the balcony.
Faced with this
impediment, Wieringa considered another route. He called Neil Wood,
vice-president and co-owner of the Burcaw Company. Wood’s company serves
as a manufacturer’s representative for TOA in Michigan. After rethinking
things, Wieringa came to a new conclusion and placed a very large order
with Wood. Wieringa explained the new design: “We ended up using all
TOAs—the H-2
in the balcony area and the H-1
on the face of the balcony facing the center of the room. And we have
added the HB-1
subwoofer to the room to give it full fidelity.” And to ensure that his
initial design achieves the high level of quality sound that he
intended, Wieringa set up an area in the balcony for a person to control
the sound. That way, he said, “The A/V person is hidden away but is
still in the room, so he knows exactly how it sounds.”
Wieringa concluded,
“The end result is that everyone in the room says the sound is seamless.
Everywhere you walk, everywhere you go, it’s just there in a very
intelligible manner. That’s exactly what we were shooting for.”
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TOA
Installation Profiles
