Zenton has delivered sound design and concept development for the newly opened Utopia Citygalleria. Zenton was also involved in the design and delivery of the shopping center’s sound system. The sound design is created to complement and enhance the brand and experience that Utopia wants customers to feel when they enter the shopping center, what they experience during their stay and what they take with them after their visit. Sound design, soundscapes and compositions at Utopia follow a common thread throughout the shopping center. Zenton’s sound system, the Shopping mall Sound System by Zenton™, provides the mall with a simple, safe, stable and cost-effective solution for controlling the sound experience.
On March 26, 2015, the third and final phase of the Utopia shopping center in Umeå, one of northern Sweden’s largest city malls, was inaugurated. A magnificent 17,000 square meter building with a huge square and atrium as the center and heart of the building. Utopia has been created as a meeting place, a so-called “multi-use” neighborhood and houses a variety of activities in addition to shops: housing as well as offices, restaurants, cafes, education, hotel, gym and bowling. In this project, Utopia commissioned Zenton to create the sound design for the different environments and to plan and design the sound system.
Kristoffer Lindgren, the founder of Zenton, is an expert in sound design and sound systems for shopping centers and commercial environments, says:
“- The sound design is created to complement and enhance the brand and experience that Utopia wants customers to feel on site and take with them after their visit. In this kind of work, it is important to take into account everything from architecture and acoustics to the sounds already in place, such as escalators, shop sounds and people to create the right sound design and find the right sound technology. Sound is proven to have a positive effect on the experience of a place and when used correctly it creates a feeling that complements the other senses in the place. Imagine a movie without sound…”
Sound design and soundscapes in the Utopia environments are intertwined and follow a common thread throughout the shopping center. The starting point is the Utopia brand and the feelings it wants to convey to its customers: exuberant, fashion/style, surprising and “anything is possible”.
Some of the noisy environments are:
- Entrances: specially written music that welcomes with the aim of giving a nice feeling of city, fashion, pulse and energy when the visitor enters the center and when they leave.
- Square: The heart and center of the city center. There are high ceilings, airy and bright, with green plants in the decor. The sound design creates a sense of sunbeams through tree tops in a forest glade and gives a soft, energizing sense of magical forest and mystery… All to enhance the experience of the interior and architecture.
- Toilets: An important place for a shopping center and its visitors. The music composed here is happy, energetic, uplifting and fresh.
The sound system for the mall is based on Zenton’s innovative, proprietary software “Shopping mall Sound System by Zenton™” and is easily controlled over the internet. It is easy to manage thanks to the fact that the whole system can be managed also via mobile platforms (e.g. iPhone, iPad or Android) through a simple web interface. The system also allows, inter alia zoning, easy scheduling of calls, easy updating of content and customization of playlists, etc. All easily installed without costly wiring thanks to the ability to connect over the center’s Wi-Fi. Read more about “Shopping mall Sound System by Zenton™”.
