The Polynesian Cultural Center is located on the North Shore of the island
of Oahu, Hawaii. Celebrating their 50th anniversary, their Imax theater was renovated
to a 4D theater featuring many immersive new technologies installed by Technifex, a
a designer and builder of theme park attractions based in Valencia, California.
Technifex asked Eminent Technology to provide and install rotary woofers for the purpose of
replicating the sound and feel of the seismic activity of the Polynesian Islands. They wanted
three woofers on each side of the 250 seat theater.
Another angle of one of the two frames used to mount the rotary woofers.
Electrosonic provided the audio and visual installation for the theater.
The 14 minute movie is projected from a Christie 4K resolution projector onto
a 40x74-foot projection screen.
Electrosonic provided a new 7.1 surround sound system (five screen speakers, two theatrical subwoofers and 11 surround speakers)
featuring JBL Cinema Series speakers and QSC amplifiers. The JBL woofers are capable of bass down to around 35Hz.
Our three amplifiers installed in the audio rack.
The rotary woofers are installed on elevated platforms inside closets on either side of the theater.
The motor controller was installed in the closet as well
and is activated from inside the projection booth.
Eminent Technology's Eric Flament wiring the motor controller to the woofer motors.
Woofers as seen from elevated platform inside closet.
Looking into the theater from behind a rotary woofer.
Rotary woofers seen from inside the theater. With the lights off, they blend right into the wall.
Rotary woofers with the closet light on.
Projector Booth seen from beside the woofers.
The rotary woofers shake the building significantly. We took accelerometer readings from
different locations around the building, including the roof, to insure that the acoustic pressure
was not causing stress on any structures inside the building. The soundtrack was then filtered
as to not excite any of the resonant frequencies measured with the accelerometer.
After finishing the job: Eric Flament, Harold Brown, and Bruce Thigpen.
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