LOS ANGELES – The Warner Center Marriott's 11,000 square-foot, 1,500-seat ballroom can be subdivided into 10 smaller meeting rooms and configured 20 different ways. But the existing sound system wasn't nearly as flexible. So the venue's management replaced it recently with a new system that includes Symetrix' SymNet open-architecture DSP and Symetrix wall panels.
KVL Audio Visual Services designed and installed the replacement system, and KVL design engineer, Virgil Reyes, oversaw the project.
The global inputs to the system didn't change much: a CD player, an MP3 player, and a decoder unit for the hotel's subscription background music service reside in a head-end rack. But now, each of the 10 potential meeting rooms contains multiple microphone- and line-level inputs for voice reinforcement and device (e.g. computer) amplification. Two SymNet 8×8 DSP units buttressed by four SymNet BreakIn12 units provide a total of 64 inputs and ample DSP horsepower to provide input conditioning, routing logic, and output conditioning.
"We had a total of 20 different room configurations, and each of them needed different equalization and dynamics settings," said Reyes, who used SymNet DSP to allow all line and mic inputs to be available at all times without running the risk of having low or loud inputs compromise the flow of an event. Limiters protect the amps and speakers from overzealous operators and yet still give the system plenty of gain and power.
Users select room combinations, input sources, and output volume using each of 10 SymNet ARC-2 wall panels located at each of the 10 potential meeting rooms. Its simple menu, up and down buttons, combined with its installer-configurable, eight-character backlit readout makes operation intuitive and trainings for day-to-day use unnecessary. Two QSC CX204V four-channel amps and one QSC CX304V two-channel amp together deliver a channel to each of the ten spaces. Sixty-six Atlas Sound FAP62T ceiling-mounted coaxial speakers reproduce the processed inputs with convincing transparency.
"SymNet allows us to recall presets that we built for previous projects, making settings such as equalization, input counts, etc. instantly up and active," said Reyes. "In the end SymNet easily gave us the processing power and flexibility to make the audio system as versatile as the meeting space itself."
For more information, please visit www.SymetrixAudio.com and www.SymNetAudio.com .
