SYMETRIX ZONE MIX 760

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BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - JULY 2008: The feasibility of meeting clients' needs with sophisticated, but cost-effective solutions for small-scale sound installations in health clubs, bars, restaurants, and other such establishments has passed a critical threshold with the advent of the Symetrix Zone Mix 760 fixed-architecture DSP.

With four mic inputs; eight stereo line-level inputs; six outputs with up to six zone assignments; all of the most-used signal processing blocks perfected in the SymNet brand of large-scale, open-architecture DSP systems; and a price point that harmonizes beautifully with the limited budgets of small-scale clients, the Zone Mix 760 is the modern solution to problems that used to be solved with easy-to-mess-up mixers, inelegant consumer gear, or chimerical assemblages held together by prayers and duct tape.

Robert Soluri, president of Boston-based Custom Cable Services, has capitalized on this sea of change with a long and growing list of small-scale installations centered on the Symetrix Zone Mix 760. With it, he offers his clients clean control interfaces through the use of Symetrix ARC-2 interactive wall panels, sophisticated processing such as ducking and automatic gain control, and bulletproof reliability that resists the"improvements" of well-intentioned but under-qualified establishment employees. Before the Zone Mix 760, delivering such functionality would have come with a price tag that no small-scale client would have even remotely entertained.

Case in point: Soluri recently completed an installation at Bodyscapes Fitness's new Brookline, Massachusetts location that had originally been completed using residential stereo receivers and loudspeakers. Although the pro system was more money, Soluri convinced the owners that the system would more than pay for itself it terms of reliability, longevity, functionality and aesthetics. Because he could use the relatively inexpensive Zone Mix 760, the extra expense was modest enough that the client was able to perceive that those less tangible, but immensely important benefits were worth more than the extra cash up front.

Soluri configured the system to handle two wireless mics located in aerobics and Pilates studios, several iPod bays, a computer audio output, CD players, and the DIRECTV feed that goes to plasma screens located throughout the facility. Six zones allow for precise volume, processing, and input sources throughout the building. Notably, the aerobics and Pilates studios each have an iPod dock and a CD player in the front along with a Symetrix ARC-2 interface that allows instructors to bring in their own music. Soluri configured their wireless microphones so that they would always be 6dB above the music through a combination of ducking and AGC.

"You wouldn't have been able to do those things with a residential system," remarked Soluri. "Moreover, the system would have been clunky and prone to uneven volume and coverage. As it is, everything except the studio controls is changed at the equipment rack in the office. It's elegant and absolutely reliable."

On the subject of reliability, Soluri also recently completed a Symetrix Zone Mix 760 installation at McGann's Pub in Boston. There, he used only one zone in replacing what had been something of a nightmare sound system. "I used to get service calls from McGann's all the time," he explained. "They make a lot of their money charging admission to Setanta-televised games from overseas. If the system doesn't work, it's big trouble. They used to have a mixer that was forever getting messed with in ways that left the system 'broken' to anyone who didn't know the ins and outs of signal flow."