Audio-Technica SpectraPulse System Chosen For ACICS Conference Room

Looking for the right microphone to rectify the inadequacies of a previously installed sound system in its conference rooms, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS) in Washington, D.C., contacted local full-service audio-visual equipment supplier and integrator Metropolitan Audio Visual Company (Metro AV).

David Wilkins, CTS, Vice President of Metro AV, with the assistance of mid-Atlantic regional rep firm Lienau AV Associates, proposed the ideal solution: a SpectraPulse Ultra Wideband (UWB) Wireless Microphone System from Audio-Technica.

“They called me up because they were having some audio issues,” Wilkins relates. “They have a conference room, a multipurpose area, which consists of three divisible rooms. Two times a year they have workshops where they put the tables together in each of the rooms; they wanted a system where they could lean back in their chair and talk as normally at one table and be able to be heard at the tables on the other side of the room.”

“It was a simple enough request but one that the original system was incapable of handling. The rooms were configured with ceiling microphones, just button mics,” Wilkins explains. “You couldn’t turn the volume up a quarter-turn or it would feed back. It was completely ineffective. When I got there it wasn’t even plugged in anymore.”

Wilkins called Tom Macri at Lienau AV Associates looking for something that’s as close to the ‘magic microphone’ as they can get. Macri immediately suggested SpectraPulse.

“He brought the system down and they were blown away by it,” Wilkins adds.

Wilkins installed a SpectraPulse system incorporating 14 mtu101 Microphone Transmitter Units, the maximum quantity supported by the system, a single 14-channel drm141 Digital Receiver Module, and two seven-output aci707 Audio Control Interface demultiplexing modules.

Metro AV retained the previously installed Extron ceiling speakers and Ashley amplifiers, adding AMX control panels and Biamp DSP.

Although ACICS is located just across the street from Washington, D.C.’s Union Station, the Ultra Wideband technology at the heart of SpectraPulse avoids the RF interference issues associated with conventional VHF, UHF and 2.4 GHz wireless systems.

Further, since no frequency coordination is required for all 14 channels to operate simultaneously, SpectraPulse is easy to both set up and operate.

“We basically set-up the SpectraPulse system so that it could combine or uncombine as needed,” explains Wilkins, who configured the system such that staff members need simply set out the individual SpectraPulse microphones on the tables in the correct locations.

“In order to get the best performance out of the wireless mics we set up a zone system with color-coded the mics and said, these only stay in room A, these in room B and these in room C—it works great.”

Audio-Technica

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