Cultural Center

The Ismaili Centre, Dubai is a complex of creative spaces for contemplative, cultural, educational and recreational purposes. Located in Oud Metha, the center stands out for its amazing architecture and natural stone design. The main hall within the center required a new sound system that not only provided clear and even sound coverage but also took into account the requirements of the building aesthetically.

Procom was put to the challenge of designing and installing the system that met all the criteria outlined by the center’s committee.

One of the main challenges within the design was working with a room that had a significantly high reverberation time due to the hard stone walls and high, dome shaped roof structure. A number of 3D renders and simulations were executed on the space to determine the best possible solution to provide even coverage throughout the listening area, while still maintaining an acceptable level of speech intelligibility.

A combination of four Kayman KY102 Line Array Elements were selected as the main FOH system as these provided a 10 degree vertical coverage pattern, allowing more sound to be focused onto the direct listening space and less onto the reverberant surfaces. Two Python KP52-I variable beam line array columns were used as delay fills towards the back of the hall. Along with this, ten Rumble KU44 subwoofers, Kommander-KA24 4 channel per 500W and Kommander-KA84 4 channel per 2000W power amplifiers were added to complete the system.

K-array’s compact and sleek design with premium finishing made this the system of choice. All speakers were custom-built to match the exact RAL pallet of the walls for seamless visual integration.