| WSS
Media is a live television home shopping network,
in conjunction with an extensive Internet shopping
site (www.shoppingsource.com). WSS broadcasts
live 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on the Internet
and cable broadcasts. WSS Media moved into their
new facility in February of 2005. The facilities
were existing construction and the space had not
been acoustically treated for broadcast. The challenge
here was to improve the live
/end dead end characteristics of each of the
various rooms while staying on a budget.
“My goal was to reduce reverberation
to an unnoticeable level, I had used Sonex acoustical
foam previously in broadcast facilities and had
been happy with it”, says Levens. Knowing
that they needed a Class A fire rated foam that
they could install themselves they contacted Acoustical
Solutions, Inc. to discuss their options. Acoustical
Solutions recommended the Sonex Classic Colortec,
because it meet their desired acoustical rating,
desired fire ratings and was available in the
desired color, charcoal.
The WSS studios include a modern, sleek set with
wood floors and painted CMU block walls. The Sonex
Classic Colortec acoustical foam panels were
placed behind the scenes to absorb reflected sound
as well as background noise emanating from equipment
and people around the set. The main problem was
that the sound reverberating off all of these
hard surfaces in the main control room and audio
control rooms, combined with the buzzing from
equipment, challenged the technician’s concentration.
Treatment of these spaces with the Sonex acoustical
foam, resulted in less slap back echo, reduced
reverberation and near field reflections for greater
focus during live feeds. Levens added, “After
the Sonex product was installed in WSS Media broadcast
facilities, we noticed a huge improvement. Going
live around the world, we wanted everything to
sound just right.”
The Sonex acoustical foam is available in natural,
painted, hypalon or colortec finishes. The advantage
of using the colortec finish is that the foam
is class A fire rated and the charcoal or light
grey color is actually dyed throughout the entire
thickness of the foam panel, creating a consistent
look even when the panels are cut to fit around
obstacles.
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