The Line Hotel, a 12-story modernist tower originally designed by renowned architecture firm Daniel Mann Johnson & Mendenhall, is located in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, where its melding of midcentury architecture and industrial chic makes it a popular stopover for travelers. Commissioned to install a sound system in keeping with the modern, high-tech feel of the hotel, integration firm LA Sound opted for Martin Audio loudspeakers throughout the public areas downstairs and outside on the patio deck, pool area, and in the greenhouse.
According to Richard Ralke of LA Sound, the system starts with Martin Audio C8.1T 8in. ceiling speakers in the lobby, café, entryway, and bar areas. These were chosen because they have a tighter dispersion pattern, which was more effective in covering the greater ceiling height averaging from 12ft. to 14ft. and reaching people who are both standing and on the move.
For the Pot restaurant, a collaborative effort with the street-food king Roy Choi, which specializes in Korean hotpots, Martin Audio C6.8T 6in. ceiling speakers with a wider dispersion pattern were used to provide more balanced coverage in a space with a shorter 10ft. to 12ft. ceiling height where there is less movement.
The bar, lobby, and restaurant are situated in separate zones, so the volume can be adjusted for each, but they function as one common source area because they are adjacent acoustically and open to each other. Either zone can adjust their level individually using the Rane Hal1 house system with remote controls for volume and source selection.
“In the restaurant,” Ralke says, “we were able to bury an AQ112 in a staircase—the speakers are around 14in. in every dimension so they’re pretty small––and fire it into the room through an air conditioning return vent. The other one is integrated in the outer wall covering near a hostess stand at the entry. Again, the low-frequency coverage throughout the space is very smooth and even.”
One level above the lobby and restaurant is a patio deck with a pool area and greenhouse also providing the same source audio. The outdoor pool area has 14 Martin Audio C115T surface-mount, outdoor full-range speakers with four subwoofers and an additional four C115T’s in a remote listening area by the patio. Three Powersoft M28Q 4-channel amplifiers drive all of the subwoofers and full-range speakers in the hotel.
“The greenhouse on the deck presented an acoustic challenge because it’s all glass and concrete, wood, and steel inside,” explains Ralke. “But the hotel showed us a layout with plants positioned to break up the sound, so we were able to use six Martin Audio AQ8 8in. two-way, surface-mount exterior speakers and get the smooth, even coverage we needed from one end of the greenhouse to the other.”
