Linking Paris to Germany, Russia, Switzerland via high-speed rail, as well as serving as a hub for the Paris Metro, the Gare de l’Est is one of Europe’s busiest train stations.
Recently, SNCF (France’s railway company) hired UK/France-based Sound Directions to update its ticket sales area sound reinforcement system to deliver information and revenue-generating advertisements to waiting customers. Sound Directions used a Symetrix Jupiter 4 ‘zero learning curve’ audio processor to provide ambient noise sensing, in addition to other processing, with minimal setup time and at a maximum performance-to-cost ratio.
The company has an aptitude for delivering directional sound for digital signage and museums, which they put to good use at Gare de l’Est. The installation was completed by integration specialist Audio Visuel Zoom, one of the regions leading audio/visual integrators.
To prevent the sound intended for the waiting queue from contributing to the overall din, Sound Directions systems specialist, Christophe Palluat de Besset selected MystSystems PAN64 ceiling-mounted loudspeakers. The PAN64 broadcasts in a square of 64cm at a constant level for up to 15m, with a particularly steep drop-off outside that beam width. A modest rack of MystSystems B17 100V amplifiers provides power.
‘The main challenge at Gare de l’Est is the huge variability in the number of customers at different times of the day and thus the huge variability in ambient noise,’ says Palluat. ‘It was evident that we had three options – we could make it loud enough to be heard in crowded conditions, but then we would blow people away at the less busy times. We could make it appropriately loud for those less busy times, but then people would miss the information when it was crowded. The ideal solution was to implement ambient noise sensing that would adjust to match the ambient noise.’
Partly because of Symetrix’ experience of ambient noise sensing (called SPL Computing by Symetrix), partly because of the Jupiter’s promise of quick set-up, and partly because of the Jupiter’s competitive pricing, Palluat selected the Jupiter 4 to provide not just the AGC, but also the rest of the system’s processing requirements. Three sensor microphones located at strategic locations near the SNCF desk monitor ambient noise for use in the Jupiter’s SPL Computing algorithm.
Modelled on smartphone app technology, the Jupiter hardware takes on a multitude of processing personalities by virtue of apps that users download from the Symetrix website (see Jupiter App Finder). For Gare de l’Est, Palluat used the Gain Sharing Automixer #1 app. In addition to the AGC functionality, he used parametric equalization to reduce frequencies near 150Hz, increasing directivity, and boosting frequencies near 5kHz to improve intelligibility.
More: www.symetrix.co
More: www.sounddirections.co.uk
More: www.audiovisuelzoom.com
