IFEC INNOVATIONS
Bombardier’s
l’Opéra also
features Dolby
Digital surround
sound technology
businessjetinteriorsinternational.com
JANUARY 2020 045
Immersive audio
Bombardier unveiled a new audio system as a
standard feature for the Global 7500 at NBAABACE
2019, developed in collaboration with CMS
partner Lufthansa Technik. Mathieu Noël, director
of product strategy, industrial design and sales
engineering at the OEM, says the uniqueness of
Bombardier’s l’Opéra rests on three pillars, the
first being hardware. Up to 18 speaker clusters
are positioned around the cabin. Each has one
high-range and two mid-range speakers, with
deep-bass subwoofers in the bulkhead wall of
the master suite and club suite, as well as under
the Nuage divan in the Entertainment Suite. “The
subwoofer goes all the way down to 57Hz, a very
low frequency that is actually more felt than
heard,” says Noël. “Three Class D amplifiers deliver
up to 1,275W of power, and the system is capable
of producing sound all the way up to 97dB.”
The second pillar is the software and digital
processing. The system has a blended fibre optic
and analogue distribution network. Passengers
typically want to play digital music from their
PEDs, so the signal processing had to be optimised
to convert this to analogue. “Cheaper sound
processing units compress the sound quality,”
says Noël. “Our system replicates the full
spectrum of sound.”
The system also features dynamic compression,
to avoid the peaks and troughs in volume that can
be annoying during movies. “Dynamic compression
allows us to minimise those uncomfortable
moments automatically,” says Noël. “You can turn
that feature off, but it’s usually imperceptible and
creates a much better experience.”
The third pillar is what Noël terms a seatcentric
sound experience. “We’ve located the
speakers strategically throughout the cabin to
create an audio sweet spot around the user at
ear level,” he says. “The experience can be further
customised through an adjustable sweet spot
feature. If you move and want the music to follow
you, you can do that.”
TOP LEFT: PASSENGERS CAN MOVE
THE AUDIO SWEET SPOT AROUND
THROUGH THE AIRCRAFT’S CMS
TOP RIGHT: THE ENTERTAINMENT
SUITE ON THE GLOBAL 7500
ABOVE: AN IMAGE DEMONSTRATING
HOW SPEAKERS ARE INTEGRATED
AROUND THE GLOBAL 7500 – IN
REALITY THEY WILL BE CONCEALED
/businessjetinteriorsinternational.com