NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: UBS is the largest bank in Switzerland, and it specializes in providing financial services, such as wealth management and investing services, to private, corporate, and institutional clients. Moreover, UBS’s reach is global. It operates in over fifty countries on five continents and employs 60,000 people around the world. The bank’s Nashville offices support its Wealth Management and Investment Management divisions and recently expanded into two floors and 30,000-square feet of office space at One Franklin Park. UBS hired Nashville A/V integration firm Southeastern Sound to install a sound masking system to protect the privacy of its clients’ conversations. Although the original plan called for separate noise generators, separate equalizers, and separate amplifiers, Southeastern Sound value-engineered the system by unifying all of those functions with an Ashly Pema 8250.70 integrated 8×8 Protea™ matrix digital processor and 8-channel amplifier.
“The masking consultant’s original plan called for multiple signal processors, one for each separate function,” said Brian Cook, senior audio designer at Southeastern Sound. “I looked at the spec and saw an effective way to value-engineer the system with an Ashly Pema 8250.70. Everything they needed for masking was already included in the Pema. We submitted the Ashly PEMA unit as a replace and the consultant readily approve the change. The PEMA unit has a noise generator, plenty of flexible EQ and filtering, and plenty of amplifier channels so that we could process the different areas as separate zones. Some of the space is occupied by cubicles and some is occupied by conference rooms, and the rest is occupied by walled offices or common spaces. The Ashly Pema 8250.70 was less money and less rack space than the comparable multi-piece system.”
The Ashly Pema 8250.70 covers two floors and its eight 250W amplifier channels power over two hundred Atlas Sound M1000 masking loudspeakers. “The consultant was very pleased with the flexibility and functionality of the Ashly processing,” said Cook. “He liked the ease of use, the application of the filters, and the precision of the parameter adjustments. For example, when he needed a 2dB bump at 2kHz, that’s precisely what he got. In all, it was a home run. The proof of that is in the plan for another smaller area of masking that UBS wants to add. The consultant has requested an Ashly Pema 4125.70 integrated processor and four-channel amp!”
ABOUT ASHLY AUDIO
Ashly Audio Inc. is recognized as a world leader in the design and manufacturing of high quality & high performance signal processing equipment and power amplification for use in the commercial sound contracting and professional audio markets. The 40-year old company is headquartered in Webster, New York U.S.A.
