Otto „GOeast“ Atrium
The “GOeast” project by Hamburg-based mail-order giant Otto is renowned far beyond the city’s borders, primarily due to the spectacular architecture of its atrium. The architectural firm “akyol kamps” describes it as follows: “A courtyard is carved into the existing building. This courtyard provides light and access to the office spaces. At the same time, this special space serves as an identity-forming nucleus for the newly created working environment.”
Given this context, it is crucial to maintain the clean lines of the architecture and the visual impact without disrupting it with speakers, while still meeting the user’s demands for the highest sound quality and, above all, excellent speech intelligibility. For this reason, our VIDA systems were chosen to meet these demands for all events in the atrium. The VIDA L systems on the left and right of the LED wall were installed invisibly behind an acoustically transparent cover, allowing for precise sound coverage of the listening areas. Our market-leading beamsteering technology directs the sound energy precisely to the audience, with the rest of the atrium remaining virtually unaffected to avoid masking reverberation.
“This project is a great example of how our VIDA systems perfectly harmonize with outstanding architecture,” says Christoph Wöhler from Kling & Freitag, who calibrated the system on-site. “Despite the large, open space, the sound quality in the listening area is truly top-notch, and speech intelligibility is excellent. With the cover next to the LED wall, VIDA is practically invisible but performs at a level that previously could only be achieved with larger arrays in the middle of the room. Sometimes, it can be that simple.”
