JFK Airport NY

The International Arrivals Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York is viewed by many as the model for air terminals for the 21st century. With sixteen contact gates over 150.000 m2, it is one of the largest terminals in the United States. AXYS Intellivox was specifi ed to deliver excellent speech intelligibility in the impressive Departures and Arrivals Hall.

The International Arrivals Terminal at John F. Kennedy airport, in short Terminal 4, officially opened to the public on May 24th 2001, after a construction period of several years. Terminal 4 now handles international and domestic flights for more than 40 airlines. If it were a stand-alone airport, it would be the 8th largest in the USA, and project planning even incorporates ultimate expansion from 16 to 42 gates. The terminal features a dramatic light-filled Departures Hall, measuring 130 by 200 meters, which facilitates the process of moving from check-in to flight departure. The glass walls offer passengers clear lines of sight to the aircraft from the time they enter the building. The building’s orientation ensures that the passenger is always aware of the next step in the departures and arrivals process - a feature designed to eliminate stress. Terminal 4 also boasts a state-of-the-art Information Technology system, a light rail station integrated into the heart of the building, new elevated roadways, a retailhall the equivalent of four Manhattan blocks, and concourses for the departure gates. It is, in short, a unique project, for which AXYS Intellivox loudspeaker columns were specified. The original loudspeaker planning for Terminal 4 started as early as 1997. The system itself was shipped in September 2000, and installed in the first months of 2001. The amount of Intellivox speakers used is 8 Intellivox-6c’s (Now known as the DC 500) in the Departures Hall, and 11 Intellivox-2c’s (DC 280)in the Arrivals Hall.

Arup Acoustics
Arup, a world-wide specialist in the planning and design of large scale projects, played a key role in the JFK project . The firm provided planning and multidisciplinary engineering services, including structural, mechanical, electrical, fire protection, communications, fire engineering, and acoustics. Neill Woodger of Arup Acoustics in New York was the acoustical consultant and PA designer. The key design issues, says Woodger, were to achieve the required speech intelligibility in the very large spaces of the departures and arrivals hall, and to integrate the loudspeakers architecturally. Woodger’s philosophy in addressing these problems is fundamental: “Getting high intelligibility in difficult spaces is simply about using loudspeakers correctly, locating them appropriately, controlling the acoustics response of the room, and controlling the quality of the input signal. Too often, one or more of these is not addressed, and as a result the whole system fails. On this project, as both acoustician and PA designer, and with the support of the Architect (SOM) and Client (JFKIAT/Schiphol) we were able to implement an integrated design solution that worked. There is no reason that all transportation buildings cannot sound this good.”

STI value
The JFK structure consists of three public levels. The Arrivals Hall is situated on the ground floor, measuring 160 m by 32 m. It accommodates 52 immigration positions, 20 US Customs counters, seven baggage carousels, and two oversize conveyors for skis, golf clubs, and the like. Design capacity is 3200 arriving passengers per hour, compared with 2000 in the old building. In the Arrivals Hall 11 Intellivox-2c (DC 280) loudspeakers were mounted on the long side of the hall with 15 m spacing. They bridge the relatively short distance of approximately 30 m. The measured STI value of 0.78 with 15 dB signal to noise can be considered as extremely good. On the mid level, the Airtrain light rail station and the vast retail area are situated. On the top level is the Departures Hall that measures 130 m by 200 m with a 13 m ceiling and is entirely enclosed with glass. Four banks of island counters are located here, with 36 check-in positions each. The total capacity is 2800 departing passengers per hour. In this hall a mere 8 Intellivox-6c (DC 500) loudspeakers provide sufficient speech intelligibility. They are positioned in between the counters, projecting the sound over a distance of approximately 80 - 100 m. The STI value in this enormous space reaches 0.62 with 15 dB signal to noise.

Safer place
Not only did these measured STI values exceed the set minimum STI target of 0.5 STI, but the subjective intelligibility is also excellent in both areas. A radio reporter broadcasting live from the JFK Departures Hall, was heard expressing his amazement about the excellent sound quality. Neill Woodger confirms, that there is sort of disbelief among the general public that a large hall can sound this good. “Many people were amazed at the quality, clarity and intelligibility of the PA throughout the terminal - they did not realise that this was possible, having been conditioned into expecting all PA systems to sound terrible! In fact, this system shows that it need not be like that.”

Several measures were taken to reach this goal, he explains. “Perforated metal acoustic ceilings were used to dampen the reverberation – the final reverberation time in the ticketing hall was 1.8 seconds, in the arrivals hall 1.2 seconds - exceptionally well controlled for these enormous volumes. The directional AXYS loudspeakers were used to maximize the direct to reverberant ratios, and minimize the excitation of the upper volume. DDC controlled arrays were used in the larger spaces and distributed line arrays in the smaller areas. Special mountings were developed for the Intellivoxes in the ticketing hall to reduce the back radiation from the arrays and reduce the spill of sound to adjacent areas - the mountings consisted of glass fins built into the structural post holding the array. The loudspeaker spacing and aiming were analysed in CATT prior to installation to check for arrival time differences between the arrays and to determine the optimum beam parameters to simplify the on-site commissioning.”

Asked for his opinion on this kind of loudspeaker technology in general, Neill Woodger makes clear that he sees it as a major step forward. “As designers, the introduction of DDC controlled array technology has provided a step function in our ability to deliver highly intelligible voice reinforcement in traditionally difficult acoustic environments. There is no longer any excuse for unintelligible PA. With the advent of minimum intelligibility standards in the US for emergency voice evacuation systems, this new technology is going to make the world a safer place.”

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