Making the right sounds
The multifaceted way people share and interact with content has meant that choosing the right AV system for your yacht is far from straightforward. Doug Wood, design director at Ideaworks takes us through a few things to consider when installing or upgrading your audio system on board.…
Once upon a time, enjoying music on board was a simple choice between listening to the radio or a CD but today’s audio systems are much more complex. The multifaceted way people share and interact with content has meant that choosing the right AV system for your yacht is far from straightforward. Doug Wood, design director at Ideaworks takes us through a few things to consider when installing or upgrading your audio system on board.
“I just want it simple”: words that are repeated to me on an almost daily basis. Music can be one of life's joys, but for many people technology has put a barrier to this enjoyment. It used to be simple: we had a choice of radio or CD and people were comfortable with that.
Along with the different ways we can get content, the market has exploded with digital music systems. Deciding what is most appropriate for a superyacht can be overwhelming. Most music systems are aimed squarely at the mass consumer market, they are generally dealing with one person’s music. The demands of a yacht are significantly different. We have the owners and their family, guests, charters, crew, parties. With such diverse requirements, it's unlikely any one product will fit the bill. Your solution is more likely to be a combination of systems. So which systems?
Sonos is a name that comes up a lot. It is a common belief that Sonos systems don’t require wires. While it is true that you can have some wireless elements in a small home environment, installing Sonos on a superyacht makes things very different. Speakers need wires and although control and music transmission can be wireless, this is as part of a robust wifi network. Providing this network means lots of wireless access points, all of which need wires. A Sonos or similar system on a boat is likely to comprise of a rack of room amplifiers that all wire out to the speakers and are controlled by an 'app' on a tablet. The Sonos type of systems only give you access to music, inevitably meaning that when you want to watch TV, control your lights or change the temperature, you would need another system to do that. That's why music systems tend to be wrapped up as part of an overall control system, one that controls everything, not just the music.
Most music systems are aimed squarely at the mass consumer market, they
are generally dealing with one person’s music. The demands of a yacht
are significantly different.
Making sure your audio systems are up to date is important, particularly on charter yachts. Systems that need a full music upgrade are likely to need an HD video upgrade as well and most owners want to control their systems with a tablet too. In this case you would be looking at a whole system upgrade. However, you were just looking at bringing the audio up to date, then integrating Airplay is going to be the easiest route. As long as there is a decent wireless network you can change one of your old audio sources for a device that receives Airplay, such as an Airport Express.
Keeping charter guests and ease of use in mind is essential. For example, guests who travel with music fall into two categories; those who have Apple devices and those who do not. For those with, Airplay is easy to use and for those without, consider putting in a Bluetooth connection or local points to plug in their device.
Clients and guests want choice and something that is easy to operate. With content available from so many sources there has been a real shift towards downloading. With the limitations currently on board, guests will not be able to stream lots of content so it is key to consider a sensible strategy of stored content, satellite media, connection to portable media and some limited streaming devices. All of this needs to be simple to operate. This doesn't mean having an iPad, it means having great software. Who would have thought that one of the most important elements of an entertainment system is now the software?
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