Basel rail station upgrades audio with Renkus-Heinz arrays

Located at the intersection of France, Germany and Switzerland, Basel Station (Basel SBB) is a hub for travel throughout Europe. But high background and train noise, compounded by reflective ceiling and walls, made announcements hard to understand, resulting in traveller confusion, missed trains and congestion throughout the Swiss station.

Travellers are inundated with a wide range of sights and sounds as they pass through any busy transportation hub: arrival, boarding and departure announcements; safety and security information; marketing and services messaging; and the droning murmur of fellow travellers moving from point A to point B – it’s a flood of input for the senses at every step.

Transportation managers are challenged with the need to cut through clutter, capture attention and deliver actionable and perhaps critical safety information to people moving quickly across the station.

At Basel SBB, the sound system and loudspeakers were no longer up to the acoustic challenges of the space. So the station managers tasked Chris Steiger, chief executive of Zurich-based pro audio distribution firm promedias AG, with upgrading the sound quality in one of the station’s larger halls. The hall houses two large waiting areas, a cafe, and several convenience and service kiosks.

“Station managers needed to drastically improve the coverage and quality of sound for announcements within the station,” says Steiger. “The hall is so busy, noisy and acoustically alive that it was difficult for passengers to hear and understand announcements. Further, managers were worried that the audio would be inadequate when critical safety or evacuation announcements needed to be made.”

After modelling the hall’s acoustics with software, it became apparent that a new system would need to generate a high-enough sound pressure level to be heard over the background noise. The audio would also need to be tightly controlled with beam-steering technology, to move the sound away from the reflective surfaces and direct it towards travellers.

The promedias AG team specified a set of four Iconyx Compact Series beam-steering arrays from Renkus-Heinz: two ICC36/3-RN and two ICC48/3-RN arrays with custom colour finishing to blend into the decor of the hall. By significantly reducing the reflections to keep the audio focused on the travellers, the new system delivers the audio coverage, clarity and intelligibility station managers could rely upon.

The compact footprint and custom paint match of the Iconyx Compacts were also important, as many areas of the station are designated national heritage sites. The Iconyx Compact’s small footprint doesn’t disrupt the aesthetics of the space, while still providing high intelligibility.

Steiger says the Renkus-Heinz system was seamlessly integrated with the station’s existing automated safety and evacuation system. “We’re now working with management to bring Renkus-Heinz sound solutions into other halls and waiting areas within the station,” he adds.