The world of audio at sea has vastly changed over the years. With better sound, better IP ratings, and better styling, more options are available to those who wish to have premium sound aboard their sailing vessel.
However, space on board a boat can be limited—even if it is a superyacht, which is why many boat and superyacht owners are looking for AV solutions that are compact or unobtrusive. Room is a precious commodity, and styling takes precedence because superyachts are synonymous with luxury, and luxury is all about aesthetics in addition to quality.
Solutions run the gamut from statement pieces to audio that is more engineered for invisibility. And since superyacht owners are looking for the ultimate immersive experience at sea, nothing is out of the question.
L-Acoustics Creations Island allows yacht owners to do just that. Island is an innovative hybrid of high-end furniture and even higher-end electronics designed for spatial audio with an immersive audio lounge that encircles music lovers with sound as they sink into its cushions. The circular structure features a frontal zone semicircle of 13 professional concert speakers and a rear zone formed of five more. Two massive subwoofers beneath the seat handle everything below 80Hz, while four additional speakers deliver height-channel sounds from above. The sound pressure level feels more intense because of the seating area’s proximity to the audio system. Up to a kilowatt of power goes to each channel, which delivers live reference high-res audio at close quarters. The experience of it is entirely enveloping.
“One of the major benefits of Island is that it’s completely self-contained,” explains Nick Fichte from L-Acoustics Creations. “Often with yacht interiors, it can be difficult to house loudspeakers due to design constraints, but with Island, they are all built-in. We’ve recently been looking at a project where the client wanted a sizable LED screen, a Samsung Wall, for watching movies at night. Island is perfect for this as you don’t have to worry about where to place loudspeakers that can’t be placed behind an LED screen. With Island, audio is in front of the display, which is exactly the right place.”
The best part for superyacht owners is that the entire Island rotates. Simply rotate to enjoy the view of the body of water you’re gliding in or whatever shoreline happens to be the nearest port of call.
Island isn’t just for cinema viewing and listening to favorite streaming services in Dolby Atmos, though. It also supports L-Acoustics’ L-ISA immersive audio and Bubbles, which offers 24 channels of uncompressed 24-bit 96kHz hi-res audio.
“Yacht owners and their guests are renowned for appreciating the finer things in life,” says Fichte. “So, Island includes a Bubble Deck, which allows playback of custom-created audio content in a 23.1 audio standard known as BluSpace.”
To play the recordings available in this proprietary L-ISA Bubble format, you place the corresponding Bubble (which looks like a glass bubble) on the player behind the seating area. The Bubble then glows, and the music plays with astonishing clarity. How it works: A Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip inside the Bubble unlocks and plays the recording saved on a connected hard drive. Island is design-innovation meets high-end technology, and it’s a sure-fire way to impress guests onboard.
Yacht owners who want to push luxury entertainment to even greater heights can seek out Maunakea, the pairing of Island and the M1 unfolding TV by Austrian manufacturer C SEED. Maunakea, named after a volcano in Hawaii, that is even taller than Mount Everest when measured from sea floor to summit, affords new heights of modern elegance for luxury home entertainment.
by L-Acoustics Creations
Published 30 August 2022