St. Olaf College (Minnetonka, Minn.) recently installed a Symetrix SymNet Audio Matrix, a modular audio mixing, routing and processing system that gives the center a high degree of automation and flexibility to deliver diverse sound simultaneously to several different zones of the complex.
American Pro Audio, a Symetrix dealer in Minnetonka, Minn., identified the school’s new $12 million Tostrud Center as an ideal candidate for its first commercial installation of SymNet. Owner Lee Windsperger said SymNet gave the school an opportunity to save a substantial sum of money on additional audio gear, as well as the chance to gain easy control over andflexibility with audio delivery to a large, multi-zoned facility.
“SymNet replaces a lot of external boxes that they might have had to otherwise buy, such as an equalizer for each of the different zones and maybe compressors, as well,” said Windsperger. “With the 8-input and 8-output unit, the area gets central control over all of the audio sources, plus an adaptive remote-control [ARC] box in each of four zones, which is connected to the SymNet control unit by Cat5 cable. Plus, the whole system can be set up and the parameters changed with a laptop computer.”
With SymNet, audio can be tailored to each of four zones in the complex: the main entryway area, a fitness area, a weight room and a running track. The current audio sources are three Denon TU-1500 tuners (one each for the entryway, weight room and both the track and fitness areas) and two Denon DN600F CD players, one each for the weight and exercise rooms. The units are housed along with the SymNet hardware and three Electro-Voice CPS 2T amplifiers in a rack in a closet area off the fitness room.
American Pro Audio also specified Electro-Voice speakers for the complex. A total of 70 Evid 3.2T speakers are mounted on the walls around the track area, while six Evid 6.2T speakers are mounted in the entryway area and four each are in the weight room and exercise room.
Roger Fette, owner of Fette Electronics, Faribault, Minn., who installed the system, said SymNet was definitely the right solution for the school’s needs. “I really pushed hard for it because everything ties back to the central closet. They had multiple sources with preset volume and paging capabilities. It would have been a lot harder to configure if it were a mechanical analog system. This way, they get a lot better audio quality and control with less possibility of picking up environmental noise, as well.”
For more, visit Symetrix online at www.symetrixaudio.com.
