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Pontifical university linked by QSC basis
Rome, Italy, July 2008 … The curriculum at the prestigious Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum in Rome covers subjects ranging from bioethics (in which it has taken a leading role) to secular studies.
Funded by the Catholic Congregation of the Legionaries, the University shares the same facility with the European University of Rome, which promotes the Study of Psychology Sciences, History, Business & Economics and Jurisprudence.
With a constant programme of seminars, lectures and conferences taking place in the facility’s many theatres and classrooms, it is vital that this knowledge can be shared, and the word passed bi-directionally.
However, these classrooms had been functioning as stand-alone units until the faculty contacted technology distribution company, Parma-based Audio Link srl. Proprietor, Stefano Cantadori, knew immediately that QSC’s components could be used to establish a network and save the University money.
“Although the previous system did not have networking capabilities, it had only recently been commissioned,” stated Cantadori. “Therefore we had to provide an alternative solution as economically as possible.”
Audio Link prepared a written presentation showing how the existing system could be improved and at the same time set up a demonstration.
Four main classrooms and lecture rooms upstairs, along with the 500-seat Auditorium Giovanni Paolo II, were to be connected to the new network. This was designed using the CobraNet digital backbone of QSC’s proprietary QSControl.net platform.
QSC Audio’s Basis 922uz and 522ua devices have been employed to enable all the required rooms to communicate with each other. Additionally, they control, protect and monitor the hardware, while configuring the DSP to provide signal processing such as equalisation, delays, automatic mixer functions, electronic crossovers and transportation of the audio over CobraNet.
Remote control and system monitoring functions were partitioned onto a second Ethernet network.
Marco Angelini, a resident specialist in telecommunications, designed and deployed the redundant Ethernet networks using existing lines and adding HP ProCurve switches and routers, approved by QSC Audio, for the task.
Another problem facing the cabling and integration company — Milan-based Vida Studio — was retrofitting the system into an existing video matrix and videoconferencing infrastructure, which needed to be synced up to the audio. Italo Lazzarini’s company rewired and reconfigured the racks with both new and existing devices, putting to good use their experience in video .
In the Auditorium some existing speakers now provide auditorium delays (the delay taps programmed into the Basis device) making way for a pair of QSC ModularDesign MD F122/94 to be recessed behind the stage scrim, and driven two-way as the main system. These enclosures contain a 12in LF section (featuring 4” voice coil) 1.4” compression drivers (with 2.5” voice coil) — and 90° x 40° coverage pattern, and were designed for applications such as this.
“The MD was a perfect solution,” said Cantadori. “The vertical and horizontal dispersion characteristics properly match the room, while clarity and intelligibility show a significant improvement over the previous system; it provides high SPL and excellent gain before feedback.”
Audio Link called on the The Haas Precedence Effect to enable listeners to accurately localise sounds coming from around them; in other words, wherever the person is seated in the auditorium, the speech reference always appears to be emanating from the person delivering the lecture (rather than from any remote source).
Driving the system in the Auditorium are a combination of QSC’s PowerLight PL236 and PL218 amplifiers, while the Basis 522ua is used both to drive the power amps and to act as automated mixer for conferences. Also in the control room for the Auditorium, a pair of QSC Audio’s AD-S52’s provide accurate reference monitoring.
On the floor above the auditorium, Aula Tesi, Aula Magna and other two main lecture rooms are fitted with 2RU QSC Audio CX404 4-channel power amps, and these systems are locally assisted by Basis 922uz DSP’s, with eight mic/line inputs.
Stefano Cantadori’s team also organised a demo to show the pristine intelligibility that QSC Audio’s AD-C152T ceiling speakers would generate in the lecture rooms. “We placed them on specially-adapted mic booms and the mic entered the QSC Basis 922uz feeding two QSC CX 404’s. I remember the expressions on the faces of those listening — the intelligibility was pristine, the pressure level was way beyond their previous experience, and there was no feedback.”
As a result, these rooms have since been fitted with multiples of AD-C152T compact, fully-sealed two-way ceiling speakers (in white), integrated and concealed within the room architecture. Audio Link have also provided portable pairs of AD-S52T’s for use as optional front-firing speakers at the top tables.
“We have shown that a QSC Basis unit can replace racks of old machinery, providing preamp sections, auto mixer functions and virtually all audio signal processing algorithms you can think of. Using QSC four channels amplifiers we could assign different delays to loudspeakers serving different zones. This allowed us to synchronise audio ‘arrival’ times and set up the Haas Precedence Effect.
All the task-specific presets, programmed into the Basis units by Audio Link’s Giammario Piumatti, are instantly recallable, including videoconferencing; when the University is operating the video matrix, the audio automatically follows it.
Now any source signal can be routed to any destination — not only to and from the main auditorium but over huge distances, relaying events taking place elsewhere in the world. “For example,” says the Audio Link MD, “there was a conference in Bologna recently and the signal was received in the main control room, and from there it was distributed internally around the various rooms.
“We have made this system entirely transparent to the operator,” he continued. “All the lecturer needs to do is to take his place behind the mic and speak. There is no need for technicians in these rooms to regulate the audio at all.”
As a result of this cost-effective solution, students studying academic subjects from all over Europe can now rub shoulders with young priests, theologians and those attending the first faculty of bioethics in the world to learn in harmony.
The University is so pleased that it has commissioned a further phase of work in the large complex — notably a second smaller theatre belonging to the Legionary Congregation. Here Vida Studio will be supplying an integrated multimedia system including a new set of QSC Audio DSP devices, amplifiers and loudspeakers.
Further information from:
JGP Public Relations
Tel: +44 (0)1707 258525
E: jerry.gilbert@ntlworld.com
QSC Audio Products, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of power amplifiers, loudspeakers, signal processing, digital signal transport, and computer control systems for professional audio markets worldwide. For more information, contact QSC Audio Products, Inc., 1675 MacArthur Blvd., Costa Mesa, CA 92626 USA. Phone: 800-854-4079 (USA only) or 714-754-6175. Fax: 714-754-6174. E-mail: info@qscaudio.com, or visit www.qscaudio.com. |
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