RCF have recently provided the audio system for the Palazzina di Caccia (hunting lodge) of Stupinigi, one of the residences of the Royal House of Savoy, which was built by architect Filippo Juvarra in 1731. This out standing palace, located in the little town of Stupinigi near Turin, has been awarded World Heritage List by Unesco.
The project has been designed by the RCF Project Design Office, on the based on the original design made by Mr. Sergio Berno from the EL Engineering Service of Turin. The installation has been completed by Orion Gesta under the supervision of engineer Ivan Catellani.
The main audio system is the RX4000, a completely integrated system for voice evacuation, paging and background music and is EN 60849 CEI 100-55 compliant. The main control unit manages two more units, located in other parts of the building and are connected to the first through CAT 5e UTP cable. All three units are equipped with boards for the diagnostic of the amplifiers, and the speaker line (ground, short circuit, ect.) and microphone consoles.
The two slave units are also equipped with EOL boards to check the connection with the main central unit. Three different banks of recorded messages are controlled by the central unit.
The audio system has been divided into 11 zones, managed entirely by the main unit, CP4100, that process’s and sends all the standard paging an emergency calls that come directly from the fire alarm system.
The microphone consoles are a BM 4716 with an LCD display to control the system, that manages the announcements and the background music for all the 11 zones, and a fireman’s paging console, EN60849 compliant and that has the highest priority.
For the big oval shaped manor hall, which represents the core of the whole palace, DP1T/G sound projectors have been installed, that, thanks to their directivity and high audio quality, have proved the best choice for big reverberating spaces. Thanks to their compact size, high quality, controlled dispersion and very good frequency response in vocal reproduction, MQ80P have also been installed in the main hall.
To amplify the sound in the 4 corridors that start from the main hall, DU100X have been used. The compact sized DU100X are highly efficient speakers, with an outstanding versatility when used in this type installation procedure. To minimize the visual impact of the speakers in such an historic palace, the Orion Gesta installers have hidden them inside fireplaces or niches in order to preserve the integrity of the richly painted a fresco walls. Even MQ80P speakers have been camouflaged thanks to the niches in the balconies.
Thanks to this configuration the RCF system has allowed a uniform sound dispersion in the whole palace, with the advantage of just one main control unit that manage all the system simplifying the operations.