Representing the largest single investment in the New Jersey Port Authority’s history, Newark Airport’s Terminal A is now open – occupying one million square feet and offering with 33 gates. The terminal boasts 21st century technology, public art, world-renowned retailers and locally-inspired concessions. Complementing the public art is an immersive digital journey that captivates passengers with the Garden State’s landmarks, art, and innovations through a series of permanent large-scale multimedia installations.
Newark’s Terminal A joins LaGuardia’s Terminal B as the only two airport terminals in North America awarded the highest Skytrax rating.
The terminal served 15m passengers in its first year, greatly outperforming yearly passenger totals from the previous Terminal A, and part of what makes Terminal A stand out is audio served from AtlasIED’s GlobalCom communications platform.
When the Port Authority began planning the renovations for Terminal A, it was down to long-term integration partner MKJ Communications to help design the complex paging system that would serve the massive complex. MKJ had previous experience as part of LaGuardia Terminal B’s A/V overhaul, and was well-suited to tackle a project of Terminal A’s scale.
‘Airports generally have very high noise floors,’ says MKJ Communications Project Manager, Ylli Dika. ‘From travellers to vehicles to machinery, it adds up to significant audio fatigue in a short amount of time. We knew we needed a system that would provide the necessary audibility and intelligibility for sharing critical travel announcements, which is why we recommended GlobalCom.’
MKJ’s implementation team chose the AtlasIED TitanOne T112 smart mainframe power amplifiers to provide signal automation, processing, and amplification in a single modular solution. When fully populated with amplifier cards, this offers 12 main channels of amplification, with two for redundancy. If an amplifier card fails, processing is automatically switched to the backup card.
The T112 is also equipped with SystemAssured Supervision for entire system monitoring and fault detection. It incorporates AtlasIED’s smart AlwaysHear technology, which ensures that the audio levels are automatically adjusted. Forty-eight TitanOne T112s are used to power more than 2,300 in-ceiling, pendant, and surface mount loudspeakers installed throughout the terminal.
Paging throughout Terminal A is available from any of the 120 Dante-enabled AtlasIED IED570DDT-H digital communication stations at the gates, ticket counters, and central operations. These have a fully programmable touchscreen user interface and a handheld microphone with an omnidirectional electret condenser cartridge that eliminates proximity effect.
The Port Authority also wanted to integrate the GlobalCom platform with the airport fire evacuation and alarm system to coordinate communication activities with passengers. Whenever a fire alarm is triggered in the terminal, the paging system is muted with the exception of the fire command mic station in central operations. MKJ used IP-1522LR logic/relay modules to integrate the fire alarm and paging systems together. The PoE-powered programmable relay device can be used for a wide variety of remote control and automation applications and is equipped with two electro-mechanical relays and two optically isolated inputs.
‘Integrating the fire alarm and paging system was challenging, but the GlobalCom platform helped simplify the installation while also making it easy to create and modify paging zones as requirements evolved,’ Dika says. ‘Our partnership with AtlasIED and experience with its products made the installation go smoothly, and we’re very proud of our role in making Terminal A a world-class experience for travellers.’
Feedback from Terminal A passengers has been overwhelmingly positive. The attention to detail is evident in every aspect of the terminal – there is even a children’s lending library and an indoor playground.
More: www.atlasied.com
