Founded in 2009, Con Bao So is the leading provider of audio-visual systems in Vietnam, serving both residential and commercial markets.
They have successfully delivered and operated thousands of projects, ranging from home entertainment systems to professional performance systems.
We visited their showroom in Hanoi to upgrade their 9.4.4 K-Array system to WaveForming and interviewed their founder, Tri Luong.
Can you tell us a bit about this room ?
After much delay due to the Covid pandemic, Con Bao So is very proud to officially open the showroom in Hanoi in October 2023. Although the size is not as big as the one we have in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi Showroom is honored to have some of the most advanced equipment and technologies from Trinnov, K-Array, Meridian, Barco Residential and Crestron.
In order to optimize the customer experience in such a limited space, we have divided our showroom into three main areas: multimedia room combining movie showing and hi-end music room, multi-functional meeting room and a dedicated special cinema room.
The media room features a Meridian 5.2.2 active speaker system, powered by a Trinnov Altitude 32 processor and combined with a Meridian 271 digital cinema controller.
The dedicated cinema room has a K-Array 9.4.4 speaker and amplifier system, as well as a Trinnov Altitude32 processor, a Barco Balder cinema projector and an Elite audio transparent cinema screen.
The entire showroom is operated by Crestron's smart home control system.
Overview of the room with subwoofers
What was the client’s original intent for this project?
In our previous showroom in Ho Chi Minh City, the flexibility and easiness to change between the sound and visual systems is prioritized. And this flexibility sometimes supersedes the stability, aestheticism and performance quality.
However, when we started the design for the showroom in Hanoi, we wanted to do something completely different. It will not be just a demo location, it will be our dream cinema. And yes we have built it as if it was our own dream cinema, with high quality cinema products.
Everything will need to be perfect, in terms of sound, visual, audio, comfort, etc. There was no compromise during the whole design and installation of the cinema.
For example, with the soundproof installation, due to the whole space being situated inside an office building, below is a very crowded bank and offices, it posed a great challenge if we didn’t do the soundproof accurately since it would impact the other offices. Therefore, we decided to do soundproofing by room-in-room method even though it was a very expensive and space-consuming way. And the result was amazing! We could demonstrate easily at 115db without impacting our neighbors.
Tell us about the room design and speaker layout
This is a typical size cinema room of 5x7x2.6m (WxLxH) with 2 seating rows. We use a 9.4.4 speaker layout with K-array KF212 for the front and KCS18P subwoofer, powered by K-array amplifier. We treat the acoustics by Clipso/ Ecophon.
How did WaveForming become part of the requirements?
As mentioned above, not only do we want to bring our customers the best experience, but we want to bring them the unique experience. With over 15 years in operation in both pro AV and residential AV, we were completely impressed when Trinnov introduced the idea of WaveForming. The control of the bass in a small space will help us bring the big stage experience to a family entertainment room. This was something impossible before. And since then, we are determined to have WaveForming soonest and trust that it will be a revolutionary solution for the home entertainment market.
What was your impression from the calibration on?
The process of calibration for Waveforming was very fast and simple compared to our imagination through the training and the instruction document of Trinnov. It was thanks to the superb professionalism of Arnaud and Joseph. They, together with us, calibrated and explained in detail for our technology team every step of the way. After about 2 hours, the whole process was complete and the computation of the filters was achieved locally, Arnaud shared that the results were good, only a few small adjustments to reach perfection.
Even though we don’t have the knowledge and the professionalism like Arnaud and Joseph, our entire team believes that we have grasped the key elements and can quickly apply to our real projects after practicing a few times with our systems at the showroom.
What can I say? I am not sure. I would like to repeat the feedback from one of our first customers who visited the showroom “I cannot take it anymore. My heart is pounding so fast and I have goosebumps. I have never experienced anything like this”.
What do you think is WaveForming’s main benefit for you as a home cinema specialist, and for the end client?
For the past 15 years, we have used the same slogan “Bring the cinema to your home” and until now we realized that we were really doing that only with Trinnov and Waveforming.
I am very very very happy with the outcome and the feedbacks are great:
“My heart beats so fast”
“Oh my god!!!”
“Unbelievable”
“This is …. something… else …. something different”
Do you already have other projects in the works using WaveForming?
Yes we have 1 new project in April and 1 upgrade project in February.