Bose Professional Gives Befitting Tribute to War Heroes

M/S Fine Arts Solutions brings the audio experience to life with Bose Professional Loudspeakers at the National War Memorial

Published in September-October 2020 Issue

The National War Memorial stands as a stellar tribute to the Indian Armed Forces who served our country in times of conflict. The scale and significance of the memorial means that it attracts a huge amount of attention.

Making it engaging and memorable for visitors is a new integrated audio solution from Bose Professionals featuring ArenaMatch loudspeakers, which enhances the memorial’s purpose to commemorate the sacrifices made by our armed forces and also provide a place where future generations will continue to come together and remember the sacrifice and contributions made by our brave soldiers. PT reports.

Spread over 40 acres of land and built around the existing canopy near the iconic India Gate in New Delhi - the National War Memorial (NWM) was inaugurated on February 25, 2019, by the honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi; and it stands as a stellar tribute to the Indian armed forces, as names of personnel martyred during the armed conflicts of 1947–48, 1961 (Goa), 1962 (China), 1965, 1971, 1987 (Siachen), 1987-88 (Sri Lanka), 1999 (Kargil), and other operations such as Operation Rakshak, lay prominently inscribed on the memorial walls.

Drawing inspiration from the ‘Chakravyuh’ formation (a multi-tier defensive formation that looks like a blooming lotus), the memorial has been designed in the form of four concentric circles around the main 15mtr tall obelisk which is located at the center.

The ArenaMatch AM40 loudspeakers and ArenaMatch AM20 loudspeakers were placed strategically across the space to ensure optimized intelligibility and even distribution of sound coverage with consistent tonal experience, with additional reinforcement that was delivered through a pair of FreeSPace DS40SE loudspeakers.

The innermost circle is named the Amar Chakra (circle of immortality), which hosts an eternal flame that burns bright at the foot-end of the obelisk; and it is at the Amar Chakra Section where a memorial service is held each evening honoring the life and sacrifice of martyred personnel, in the presence of their family and loved ones.

The Challenge

The Amar Chakra Section had a previously outfitted system which, over a period of time, began to deteriorate in terms of its audio performance. The NWM management therefore sought to equip the space with a new pro audio system that would not only deliver the kind of high-quality sound experience befitting the space, but would also be easy to use and maintain, and would also be cost-efficient, taking into account the management’s failed investment into the previous system.

M/s Fine Arts Solutions from Haryana, were contracted as the lead integrators for the National War Memorial to upgrade the audio performance of the Memorial.

Col Digvijay Singh Basera, VSM**(Now Brigadier) was the Director, at the National War Memorial (NWM) during the installation, seen here along with his team and the team at Bose Professional and M/s Fine Arts Solutions

From the design and integration point of view; finding the right combination of durable high-quality and high-performance weatherized loudspeakers that offer precise coverage angles was a key challenge owing to the outdoor nature of the project and the sheer physical dimensions of the space. Added to this was the onus of optimizing the loudspeaker system to achieve the desired result through the use of fewer modules in order to keep costs manageable as per the client.

Finally, in order for the team to appropriately install the loudspeakers at the desired points, the team had to commission extensive civil work at the space; all of which had to be completed within a 30-day deadline.

Bose Solution

Taking into account the client’s needs and the demands of the physical space itself, the Amar Chakra section was commissioned with Bose Professional’s leading-edge ArenaMatch loudspeakers which emphasizes Bose’ proven DeltaQ technology sound quality and flexibility to outdoor installations, offering features like IP55 weather rating, impressive SPL with long-throw music reproduction, impeccable vocal intelligibility, modules with multiple coverage patterns, and inter-changeable waveguides.

With the Bose Professional ArenaMatch series, the design and integration team could choose from nine different coverage patterns and modules that offer 10°, 20°, or 40° vertical coverage, and easily swappable 60°, 80°, or 100° horizontal waveguides, which meant that they could build a custom loudspeaker array system that’s not only lighter than most other systems, but also easy to use, easy to rig, and easy to maintain.

The loudspeakers were rigged using customized mounting brackets; with the exact loudspeaker placements being finalized only after a detailed analysis of the available space was carried out, which involved commissioning extensive civil work at the venue.

Atul Tripathi of Fine Arts Solutions reveals, “Bose ArenaMatch is an absolute dream to work with. Not only is it super impressive in its performance value, but also the fact that it is so easy to rig and tune enabled us with the comfort of dealing with the last-minute stresses of commissioning the rehabilitation of the ground surfaces in order to capably support the installation of the loudspeakers. It feels great to have positive feedback from the management at the National War Memorial about the performance of their new Bose ArenaMatch system. We couldn’t be more pleased.”

Components Used

The Amar Chakra section of the National War Memorial was commissioned with a total of four units each of the ArenaMatch AM40 loudspeakers and ArenaMatch AM20 loudspeakers that were placed strategically across the space to ensure optimized intelligibility and even distribution of sound coverage with consistent tonal experience; with additional reinforcement that was delivered through a pair of FreeSPace DS40SE loudspeakers. Individual zone control and amplification was achieved through the use of Bose Professional’s acclaimed PowerMatch PM8500 power amplifier and FreeSpace IZA250LZ zone amplifier along with total loudspeaker system processing and control achieved through the ControlSpace ESP880A engineered sound processor.

The Result

The Bose Professional audio solution installed at the Amar Chakra section of the NWM has worked splendidly in meeting the client’s expectation of attaining high-quality world-class sound experience through a cost-efficient system that delivers comprehensive audio coverage through the use of fewer modules.

Digvijay Singh Basera, VSM** (Now Brigadier) professed, “From the onset, we knew we would need a sound system that could do justice to the sentiment of purity and sanctity that the memorial service at the Amar Chakra represents. And we were left impressed with the performance of the Bose Professional system since the first time we heard it when M/s Fine Arts Solutions provided offered a demo of the system on-site. The sound experience was sublime indeed; and we were also acquainted with how easy it is to use and maintain the system. Plus, the decorum, attention to detail and timeliness displayed by the team at M/s Fine Arts Solutions and by Bose Professional’s official representatives in presenting the preliminary sound system designs and for our project and quick resolutions to all our queries, made it an obvious choice for us to partner with them. We’re very pleased with our decision to have Bose as our sound partner – not only has the system met all our expectations, but it has continued to amaze us with its performance value with each passing day.”

Vibhor Khanna – Country Manager SAARC, Bose Professional

Vibhor Khanna of Bose Professional (India) shares, “The new ArenaMatch series represents Bose Professional’s evolution in bringing our patented DeltaQ technology to outdoor install applications. The ArenaMatch DeltaQ modules accentuates unique design philosophy and an extraordinary set of features that empower SIs and system designers with the capacity to conceive easy to assemble outdoor loudspeaker arrays that assure consistent, intelligible sound for outdoor installation venues of all types. And it is amazing to know of the great results that Atul and his team at Fine Arts Solutions have managed to achieve with the ArenaMatch system at the National War Memorial. It is a privilege for Bose Professional to be chosen as the preferred audio solution for such an esteemed project; and we thank the management at the National War Memorial and the Fine Arts Solutions team for investing their faith and belief in our path-breaking products, technologies and extended capabilities.”