The Czech Republic’s Brno University of Technology has established itself as one of the country’s leading universities, and recently sought to consolidate this position with a new technical installation. Covering 12 lecture halls, with capacities ranging from 75 to 200 seats, along with smaller lecture rooms, the centrepiece of the project – and its most challenging in acoustical terms – is a 300-capacity sperical auditorium.
‘The volume and acoustics of the room are everything but standard, and yet perfect coverage and intelligibility had to be achieved,’ says Michal Zeman of Audio Digital who, along with systems integrator APS, provided the Faculty of Electrical Engineering & Communications’ new installation. Zeman was aware that a system based around Symetrix SymNet Edge DSP technology could achieve the desitred results.
The modular SymNet Edge provides a 48-channel digital audio matrix and the ability to scale up its capacity should the need arise. Consisting of three Edge units located around the auditorium and connected over a standard Ethernet network using an Audinate Dante bus, Edge’s decentralised structure allowed Audio Digital and APS to keep analogue cable runs at in the auditorium to a minimum.
The Symetrix DSP – which is integrated into the auditorium’s Cue control system – is also kind to the teaching staff, who do not necessarily have great systems operation experience. ‘The choice of Symetrix really paid off here, too, as on one hand it offers user-friendly features such as automixing, and on the other allows external access to every single parameter needed, so there were no limits in adjusting the Cue’s user interface to the needs of the users,’ says Zeman.
Carefully fine-tuning the Symetrix system to optimise the acoustics, Zeman and collaborators used AFMG’s Ease software to derive a loudspeaker design based around TOA line arrays and Dynacord subwoofers. Amplification comes from APart Audio amplifiers, while wired and wireless microphones by TOA, Electro-Voice and MiPro complete the core specification.
The project’s use of Symetrix technology is not restricted to the main auditorium, however, as two of the other lecture rooms feature SymNet Solus 16 standalone DSP units, while audio in ten smaller spaces is driven by Zone Mix 761 devices.
Paying tribute to the ‘feature-richness and competitive price level’ of the Symetrix DSP technology, Zeman says that it was ‘from the very beginning our first and only choice for the DSP brain. No other brand I have encountered currently comes even close to what Symetrix can offer.’
More: www.symetrix.co
