Newcastle, England-based Treetop Adventure Golf has been treating putt-putters to immersive mini-golf courses for some time. Its latest site—consisting of two jungle-themed 18-hole courses—focused on an elevated audio experience brought to life by Powersoft’s next-generation amplifier Unica and a compact transducer, Mover.
System integrator Full Production contracted audiovisual experience designer Dan Roncoroni to design an AV system that would be able to stand alone with no operator intervention for 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Treetop Adventure Golf as a whole was an excellent client—there was no real traditional briefing, but a much more collaborative process,” explained Roncoroni, “where the system was designed to meet the company’s ambitions for new audio content, which was created with the capabilities of the system in mind.”
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The aim of the install was to tell a story for visitors playing mini golf, which is “exceptionally hard to do so without considering the audio system at the inception,” shared Roncoroni. “With a huge variance in visitor demographics, and hundreds of visitors a day, ensuring that all voice lines are intelligible in all circumstances, and that the site is well balanced and not cacophonous, is vital.”
Multiple loudspeakers are hidden at each hole with the goal of no individual low level loudspeaker being visible to guests. Players trigger audio content by succeeding or failing their putts on each hole, while there is a continual soundscape that runs in the background.
Amplification is Powersoft throughout, comprising 16 units of Unica 8M amplifier platforms divided as follows: eight Unica 2000W/ eight-channel and eight Unica 4000W/ eight-channel. Having very limited rack space, Roncoroni chose Unica primarily for its power density. “The design relied on nearly every loudspeaker being individually amplified; therefore, having eight channels of amplification with power sharing in 1U was invaluable,” he explained.
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Another reason Roncoroni decided to choose Unica amplifier platforms, was the Powersoft Cloud for remote monitoring. “There are no dedicated technical staff on site and Powersoft Cloud allows us to try and be proactive with servicing and fault finding,” he said.
James Lawford, live sound channel manager of CUK Audio, Powersoft’s UK distributor, highlighted why Unica stood as the perfect fit for this setup: “The rack space was limited, with only 16U rack, it was useful to have Unica’s power density. Not only that, but its power-sharing capability, allocating power across different speakers and utilizing multiple channels within a small amount of space proved invaluable given the number of speakers in the installation.”
During the audio install, electrical works were still underway, which is why Roncoroni thinks the testing and verification functions utilizing PoE++ were key. “Being able to test loudspeakers with only the switch powered, with no mains to the amps, was invaluable,” he said. Unica’s PoE input allows keeping the network ports and amplifier logic circuitry powered in case of mains loss, ensuring a short wake-up time when power is restored.
Lawford points out that “Dan relied on PoE++, which Powersoft highlighted as a key feature during Unica’s launch. This goes to show that Powersoft was considering both the end user and system integrator needs from the outset.”
Roncoroni also chose Powersoft’s compact, low-frequency inertial-drive haptic transducer, Mover, which was installed in an area that needed to replicate the sound and feel of a collapsing structure. Roncoroni lacked the ceiling height to mount a large subwoofer and was worried about noise complaints from neighboring units. “Mover solves both of those problems while arguably being far more effective than any traditional subwoofer,” he explained.
The compact nature and power-to-size prowess allow Mover to be integrated into limited spaces, without orientation limits, and to provide a very high ratio between moving mass and total mass which increases the overall final product efficiency. The resulting product elevates the aspect of any AV immersive experience while reducing concerns about low-frequency noise pollution.
Accompanying Powersoft amplifiers are 68 EM Acoustics EMS-41, 13 EMS-51, five EMS-61 and four EMS-81X passive loudspeakers, fourteen EM Acoustics S-48 low profile VLF installation subwoofers, two QSC AD-CTW ceiling speakers, 24 QSC AD-P4TB pendant speakers and seven AD-P.SUB-B pendant subwoofers, as well as two M2 Mac Minis, running QLab and PanLab plug-ins, two RME Digiface Dance and one TiMax SoundHub 32-S.
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On the golf course, each loudspeaker is individually amplified, with the Unica amplifiers located in a single 42U rack, alongside the lighting and show control equipment rack. “The audio system is relatively simple,” explained Roncoroni. “Each 18-hole course is run from a Mac Mini running QLab. The Mac Minis output content via Dante, through the RME units, either directly to an amplifier or via the TiMax for spatial audio.” The content is triggered via OSC commands from the Pharos lighting system that processes the output from sensors on each golf hole to trigger win, lose or ambient content.
“This was the first installation with Unica in the UK, and for us it was great to see how many Unica features Dan and Full Production utilized to make the final result a success,” said Lawford.
“We’ve had an excellent response from Treetop Adventure Golf,” reflected Roncoroni, on how the end result aligned with installation’s aims. He is further delighted by the company’s trust in him to use audio as a storytelling tool. “The company and its creative team have embraced an attitude that wouldn’t be amiss in professional theatre making."
