Ancient Wisdom Meets HARMAN ’ s Cutting-Edge Technology
HARMAN has set an example of how technology can support aesthetically appealing yet challenging and complex architectures . Our sound solutions at House of Worship- the GLOBAL VIPASSANA PAGODA in Mumbai is a testament of great engineering and domain knowledge . The Global Vipassana Pagoda serves as a monument of peace and harmony and seats over 8000 people . The traditional Burmese design is an expression of gratitude towards the country of Myanmar for preserving their practice of Vipassana . A marvelous building , built using ancient Indian technology to enable it to last for a thousand years .
The center of the Global Vipassana Pagoda is the world ’ s largest stone dome , built without supporting pillars . It took 8 years to finish the construction . The inside of the Pagoda is hollow with the highest point in the inner dome at 29m . With mid frequency reverberation time at more than 8 seconds , the Pagoda is an acoustically challenging space . The interior of the Pagoda doesn ’ t allow any acoustic treatment . What added to our challenge , is that , most of the lessons or teachings are recordings from 1970s to 1980s , all recorded through live events !
Using HARMAN ’ s revolutionary Digital Directivity Control ( DDC ) & Digital Directivity Synthesis ( DDS ) technologies , we installed two DS500 loudspeakers near the periphery of the dome , spaced 10m apart from each other . The loudspeakers cover the whole floor area in an even way , providing uniform coverage and excellent speech intelligibility in the Pagoda .
Resembling the Main Pagoda , there ’ s a small Pagoda north of the main dome , again , a stone construction with similar acoustical challenges as the main Pagoda . While installing the JBL CBT100 loudspeakers , we had to ensure that the sound doesn ’ t create too much noise because this space is used for multiple 20 minute meditation sessions throughout the day .
Mumbai is a coastal location and the Pagoda is near a creek , thus exposing it to harsh weather conditions . Long lasting and weather resistant sound solutions from HARMAN , the AWC82 loudspeakers- were therefore the best option .
Acknowledging the challenges of this iconic monument and appreciating the superior consultation and solutions provided by HARMAN , one of the trustees , Lokesh Goenka had this to say- “ For the Global Vipassana Pagoda monument , which sees more than 800,000 visitors annually , we were looking for an audio solution which could also be used as a PA system . However , the biggest challenge was to cover the 15 acres area with weather resistant sound solutions providing seamless and high quality sound . It ’ s been a year now since the HARMAN systems have been functioning at Global Vipassana Pagoda , and we are glad of our partnership . We thank the entire team for the setup and support they are providing us .”
The Score Magazine
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