Fujitsu

This product, Arktura SoundStar Baffles, is new to the industry and the first of its kind for Marek Dallas S.P.D. This brought some challenges, but with the mindsets of our men in the field, we were able to make this work.

Layout: Layout was straight forward, utilizing a template we made out of cardboard to the exact dimensions of the SoundStar and your basic tools for layout. Once marking reference points from the drawing, we would align points from the template that we made to those marks then using spray paint, we would spray the edges of the template. Once the cornerstones have been set laying out the rest of the baffles was easy. We would advise making several templates so that your layout can be done more efficiently. Now that the layout is done next would be marking your anchor points, which in this system consisted of three. Using a two-line laser, we transferred points through the layout, once points were marked, we then used the point laser to transfer them to the ceiling.

Anchor system: What made this project unique was designing a system that would allow the SoundStar baffle to float under the acoustic ceiling, which had never been done before. When it came time to do the hard ceiling it was a faster install, all that was needed was the transfer of our anchor points and then setting in those anchors. When we started working on the acoustic ceiling side, we faced many obstacles, such as duct work that went through the areas. With our framing experience we made trust tee’s and used cross tee’s that would work as a support for our cables for them to tie to. The rest was just dropping in the wire and then cutting holes in ceiling tile for the cables to run through. When all the tile was set in, the end result looked great.

Installing SoundStar Baffle: The crate these baffles came in became very useful, we used the 2x4 from the crate to create a cart for SoundStar. Each weighed 65 pounds, so a 2-man team was needed to move them around after the hardware for these baffles were installed. Next was attaching the cables and leveling the baffles. Just as you would level a ceiling, we used line laser and 4ft level to assist us on ensuring the baffle was to the right height. Once a group of the SoundStar were ready and leveled, we attached metal angle to keep the baffles connected as one unit.

On this project, the Foreman was Michael Gonzales, the Superintendant was Tommy Weeks, and the Project Manager was Jesus Roman.

Thank you to the MAREK SPD Team for delivering stellar results: Roberto Enriquez, Gabriel Enriquez, James Cichoki, Leonardo Lugo, Mario Esquivel, Ramiro Gomez, Ángel Rodriguez, Xunbao Luo, and Shangwei Tang.