EFFINGHAM, ILLINOIS: Back from a devastating fire, the Hilton Garden Inn/Thelma Keller Convention Center complex in Effingham, Illinois, has re-opened with a renewed emphasis on attracting event-related business.
An essential part of the bid to win back more convention and meeting
business is making its facilities as accommodating as possible to that core
customer. With today's heavy emphasis on functionality and ease-of-use when
it comes to AV, which increasingly boils down to the all encompassing
concept of user friendliness.
It's no wonder, then, that AVI Systems, St Louis, Missouri, the AV systems
integrator that handled the extensive audio-visual work for the
rehabilitated complex selected the Symetrix SymNet modular audio mixing,
routing and digital processing system as a core technology for managing the
complexities of this design.
According to Michael McNeil, who helped design and install the AV System,
SymNet was virtually the only digital signal processing product on the
market robust enough to manage the audio for a sprawling network of venues
within the hotel/convention center complex.
"SymNet was virtually the only product on the market with the ability
to
discretely and intelligently perform multiple tasks," McNeil says. "It's
the
core of the whole design."
Four 8x8 SymNet units, two Break-In 12 boxes and two CobraNet units handle
the mixing, processing and routing of audio to the convention center
ballroom area, that can be partitioned into four smaller rooms, and to seven
separate meeting rooms, which also can be combined, and other ancillary
areas. All of the SymNet units are linked via SymLink.
"SymNet ties about 25 of these areas together, controlling all the audio
inputs and outputs across the entire facility," McNeil says. "A control
system identifies what rooms are in use and configures the system
appropriately."
While SymNet's major role is in processing and routing, it doesn't work
alone. Equally important in AVI Systems' custom solution is a control system
from Pacific Interactive that works hand-in-hand with the SymNet processors
and SymNet ARC (adaptive remote control) units placed in each of the venue
areas.
Via the Pacific Interactive system, which employs an interactive touch
screen, SymNet can be quickly configured to match inputs that include
background music, wired and wireless microphones, CD players, DVDs, VCRs and
satellite-based content to the proper mix of outputs. Volume, auto mixing,
feedback elimination control and muting are some of the functions that
SymNet can be programmed to control based on the how the facilities are
being used.
The pairing of SymNet with the Pacific Interactive system gives the user an
unprecedented degree of control, McNeil says. "Where the magic is with
this
pairing of SymNet and Pacific Interactive is the ability, through 'broker'
software in the Pacific Interactive system, to have more than 2,000 control
points managed by SymNet discretely and reliably," McNeil says. "This
is a
departure from the type of control system in which there are presets. This
solution is very user friendly and easy to use because the interface is
intuitive and common sense oriented. SymNet is the ideal processing system
for this link up with Pacific Interactive because it has a better control
algorithm than most others on the market."
The use of the Pacific Interactive control system with SymNet also produces
higher quality sound, McNeil says. One of the reasons they work well
together is that everything is controlled within SymNet.
"Our approach with this job was to get everything in SymNet and not have
it
come out until the audio goes to the amplifier," he says. "By not
converting
from digital to analog until the sound is ready for the speaker, there are
less artifacts and better quality sound."
In place and operating successfully since the spring, the hotel/convention
center's new AV system is now helping to win back much of the business lost
while the facility was out of commission. With the help of SymNet and
Pacific Interactive, the system is allowing users to easily set up and
configure rooms quickly and easily.
"Any time you're dealing with combining that many rooms, setting up an
audio
system that can work in that environment is a challenge," McNeil says.
"But
working closely with Symetrix to get deeper into the functionality of the
SymNet box we were able to make routing, mixing and processing audio as
transparent to the user as possible."
AVI Systems, St. Louis, Missouri, chose Symetrix'
SymNet to handle the demands of the complex A/V system in the Hilton Garden
Inn/Thelma Keller Convention Complex in Effingham, Illinois.
ABOUT SYMETRIX
For more information on professional audio signal processors from Symetrix,
Lucid and AirTools please call (425) 778-7728 or refer to websites, Symetrix
Audio, Lucid Audio,
Symnet Audio and Airtools
Audio.
