ATLANTA, GEORGIA – JUNE 2011: The 12,000 square-foot Ivystone and HomeStyle showroom is located on the busiest floor of AmericasMart in Atlanta, Georgia. Its patrons are the retailers of North America and the world, who flock to the merchandise mart to stock their stores with the hottest brands and latest products. For years, the sister companies limped along with an antiquated sound system that offered little in the way of user control. They recently hired local A/V firm Atlanta Sound & Lighting to replace the old system with something more befitting their industrial prestige. The new system centers on a Symetrix Jupiter 8 “zero learning curve” processor with Symetrix ARC-WEB remote. The fully-programmable ARC-WEB provides secure network control of input source and zone volume from any computer or smartphone, anywhere in the facility or anywhere in the world.
“The space has
had a number of sound systems over the years, with people coming in to band-aid this or that, to take equipment away, or to add the odd loudspeaker,” said Bill Abner, project manager with Atlanta Sound & Lighting. “The ceiling was just a mélange of different speakers in poorly articulated zones with almost no user control. Because they often have different vendors in different areas that require different volumes, they wanted a new, reliable system that would allow them to easily adjust the volume in any situation.”
Abner and his associates showed the owners Symetrix’ new ARC-WEB remote, and that sealed the deal. The ARC-WEB implements a virtual ARC wall panel remote that can be accessed from any networked device, including iPhones and other smartphones, with appropriate security clearance. Just as with the hardware ARC panels that have become an integral part of so many flexible installations, Abner would be able to program the ARC-WEB so that its presentation and functions were specific to the needs of Ivystone and HomeStyle.
Befitting its primary role as a background music source, the new system contains three inputs: a microphone for paging, Sirius Satellite Radio, and an iPod dock. With eight inputs, eight outputs, and processing flexibility suitable for any modest installation, the Symetrix Jupiter 8 runs the “Priority Zone Mixer 1” app to deliver input conditioning, loudspeaker conditioning, and lightweight input logic. An eight-channel ElectroVoice CPS 8.5 amplifier delivers 500 watts to each of eight output zones. Forty ElectroVoice EVID 3.2 speakers provide a unified hi-fi output. In addition to the ARC-WEB, Abner added a hardware ARC-2 wall panel that provides redundant control of the input selection and individual zone volumes.
“Honestly, I was surprised at how easily the Symetrix Jupiter, ARC-2, and ARC-WEB went in,” said Abner. “I realize that all of the literature claims that it has a ‘zero learning curve,’ but to jaded ears that sounds like a variation on a well-played theme. Everybody claims their stuff is easy to use; then you use it and find that it isn’t. But sure enough, I plugged in the Jupiter and was doing everything I needed to do on intuition alone. It worked perfectly the first time. That’s one of the main reasons that the Jupiter system has become our “go-to” DSP for installations, declared Abner. Not only is the product itself outstanding, but the response to service was exceptional too. We thought we had a minor issue while installing the ARC-2 wall plate, but after a short phone call with a very helpful support technician, we overcame our error and were up and running as advertised.”
The client was excited to try out the remote capabilities of the Symetrix ARC-WEB remote. “After we installed it, they asked if one of their staff would be able to control the system from a company office 800 miles away in Dallas,” recalled Abner. “I didn’t really see the practicality of that, but happy to go with his enthusiasm, I said that if he could access the system network from his Dallas office, that certainly, he could control the software from there. Two days later, the client sent me an email from Dallas. He was excited to be controlling the audio system in Atlanta from his desktop in Dallas.”
ABOUT SYMETRIX Sound professionals rely upon the performance, value and reliability of audio mixing, routing and processing products from Symetrix. For more information on Symetrix professional audio products, please visit www.symetrix.co or call +1.425.778.7728.
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PHOTO CAPTION Atlanta Sound and Lighting installed Symetrix Jupiter 8 with ARC-WEB control in one of the busiest showrooms at AmericasMart, Atlanta, Georgia.
