bpost is Belgium’s leading postal operator and the universal service provider, which means collecting and delivering letters and parcels throughout Belgium five days per week. Every day more than 10,000 postmen and women make their rounds across the country, delivering some 9.1 million letters and 126,000 parcels to 4.7 million households, as well as collecting mail from more than 13,000 red postboxes. They are also a key contributor to the Belgian economy. It is one of Belgium’s largest employers, with more than 25,000 employees, offering quality jobs throughout the country.
In order to maintain the optimal quality that bpost aims for, there was a need for a new, larger and more modern post sorting centre in Brussels. With its strategic positioning in the centre of Belgium, bpost can quickly connect from here to provide the entire country with a fast delivery of their mail. In 2011, bpost organised a public assignment for the new post sorting centre. Katoen Natie’s Business Unit Supply Chain Engineering took charge in the design phase and in the realization of the largest post sorting centre in Belgium with the support of VK Architects & Engineering.
Providing an audio installation throughout the entire complex proofed to be a challenge for installer Lenaerts NV. Several offices, different sorting halls and communal areas such as locker rooms and dining areas needed an even and pleasant distribution of background music. In addition, a complete paging setup was necessary to notify all employees for novelties or possible hazards. The installer consulted with AUDAC’s specialist and together they created a fully balanced audio system consisting of almost 200 AUDAC products.
Because of the importance of a good audibility, the sorting halls are sufficiently covered with a combination of HS212TMK2, HS208TMK2 full range horn speakers and ASP20 Spherical hanging sound projectors. In the offices and hallways, the discreet CS74 ceiling speaker was mainly used for a beautiful design. Throughout the entire complex there are 164 speakers which are powered by ten power amplifiers. The entire system is tied together with several M2 multimedia digital audio mixers. The M2’s are also connected to 6 APM108MK2 digital paging microphones that each have 8-zone selection buttons for paging different areas.
