Cardiff Market: A Public Address System to Keep Things Moving
Client:
Cardiff Council
Venue:
Cardiff Market (also known as Central Market)
Equipment / Brands Used:
Audac
Clever Acoustics
About Cardiff Market
Cardiff Market, also known as Central Market, is an impressive Victorian structure which offers a unique shopping experience in the heart of a modern, bustling city. It is an impressive space, rich with history and has been trading in one form or another since the 1700s. Today, you can find a vast, diverse range of people and products under its glass roof.
The Result for Cardiff Market:
The announcements are now provided bilingually, in both the Welsh and English languages, and we’ve also taken the opportunity to automate the fire alarm’s warning announcement when testing.
The client retains the ability to make ad-hoc announcements using the Audac APM104 microphone, which is also the unit that stores the pre-programmed announcement messages, freeing up the members of staff to deal with other tasks, without interruption.
Cardiff is full of unique and iconic places, but in an age where the internet can provide us with whatever we want at the click of a button, we must not forget or leave local businesses behind in the name of convenience. As a communications technology company, we feel passionate about embracing the new whilst safeguarding and respecting the old.
The Brief from Cardiff Council
Cardiff Council commissioned us to design, install, and fully commission a public information address system for Cardiff Central Market, with the primary objective of supporting public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The system was specifically intended to broadcast clear, pre-recorded physical distancing reminders throughout the main market space, helping to guide visitor behaviour in what is typically a busy and densely populated environment.
In addition to ensuring consistent audio coverage across the market, the solution needed to be reliable, easy for staff to manage, and adaptable to evolving government guidance. Our work involved careful planning of speaker placement to maximise clarity without disrupting the historic character of the building, seamless integration with existing infrastructure, and thorough testing to guarantee effective day-to-day operation.
The Challenge:
The initial plan was to bring our portable recording systems to make professional recordings of the messages ourselves, but the emphasis was placed on commissioning the system as quickly as possible, so, in the end, we assisted the client by using their recordings and reformatting them in-house to be accepted by the paging system instead.
The Solution Delivered
We attended the school to carry out a thorough technical site survey and pulled the physical plans for the primary containment as per the original install.
By reviewing original building plans, we identified the existing containment infrastructure, including extra-low voltage cable trays installed during construction. This early-stage assessment of the school is a critical part of any successful AV system design, enabling efficient cable routing and reducing unnecessary solution installation time.
