The answer can be found at Bullwinkle’s, a family restaurant and amusement center in Cary, North Carolina that was designed to be a Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon come to life. According to Robin Rose, one of the Bullwinkles’owners, the presence of DuctSox™ in the HVAC system has made a big contribution to the facility’s fun atmosphere.

“Visually, the DuctSox are absolutely fantastic,” Rose said. “We were able to match the fabric in the ducts to the color of the carpet, so it looks like the DuctSox were created just for Bullwinkle’s.” In a ceiling alive with cartoon clouds, P.A. speakers and lighting fixtures, an array of Comfort-Flow DuctSox offer both space-saving ease and visual appeal. While pleasing appearance is important, sound control is the critical reason behind Bullwinkle’s choice of ductwork. The Cary franchise is the fourth location of the Bullwinkle’s chain which features a huge indoor playground, dozens of arcade games, an animatronic theater and an indoor water show...all activities which generate plenty of unwelcome excess sound. “When we toured Bullwinkle’s locations before deciding to build ours, we noticed a sound problem right away,” Rose recalled. “The sounds of the games, the music and chatter were reverberating off of the metal roof and ductwork and amplifying through the whole building,” he said. “We decided to make our store more like a theater... a quiet atmosphere and excellent sound for our attractions.” The reality turned out as well as Rose and his partners hoped. The DuctSox were combined with sound-deadening materials in the ceiling to keep the noise of each of the restaurant’s play spaces from spilling over into adjacent areas. DuctSox act as a natural baffle along a ceiling, reducing sound by breaking up small amounts of reflective noise. The fabric of DuctSox also minimizes the noise of air rushing through a heating/air conditioning system, further lowering ambient noise levels and adding to the sonic comfort of Bullwinkle’s 12,000-square-foot interior.

COST SAVINGS

Sound wasn’t the only problem faced by the ambitious owners of Bullwinkle’s in Cary. Adding amenities like a 16-foot-high climbing wall and a splashy “Liquid Fireworks” water show soon brought the four partners in the project face to face with cost overages. Again, DuctSox were an important part of the solution. “The original design had been specified with metal,” recalled Ed Adams, President of Raleigh HVAC distributor Chet Adams Co. “But when Ray Thornton, the mechanical engineer for the project, saw samples of fabric ducts he thought of Bullwinkle’s as a good application. “Although the sound absorbing properties were what attracted us initially,” he added, “Ductsox also offered an attractive cost savings over metal.” As it turned out, the DuctSox system at Bullwinkle’s cost half the price of the planned metal ducts. The architect and contractors were very impressed, but manager Robin Rose wasn’t quite sold. It wasn’t until he saw DuctSox in action at the nearby Pullen Aquatic Center in Raleigh that he approved the change. “I really had to see them to appreciate them,” Rose said. “If something can look as attractive as that and save me money at the same time, I’m all for it!”

Now that the building is completed and crowds of happy children stream in daily, Rose and his staff find a visit to Bullwinkle’s holds an extra appeal for one specialized group of visitors. “Every time someone in the construction industry comes in for a visit,” Rose said, “the first thing they notice is the DuctSox. Even though we have a building full of blinking lights, sounds, life-size Bullwinkle characters and fountains of colored water, the first thing out of a construction person’s mouth is, ‘where did you get that duct system?’ “We couldn’t be happier with the way things turned out,” he added, “Which is remarkable when you consider how difficult a project like this is to build. Other than widening the splash area in front of the Liquid Fireworks show, we wouldn’t do a thing differently.”