In effort to improve upon its sound reinforcement capabilities, the Indianapolis Marion County Superior Courts recently upgraded its physical systems which included the addition of audio processing technology from Lectrosonics.
Indianapolis, IN based ESCO Communications was contracted to handle the court’s upgrade. Phil Hodson, Director of Project Engineering for ESCO Communications, discussed the project’s key challenges.
“During our discussions with the client and upon examination of the facility,” Hodson explained, “it became clear that automation and unattended operation were crucial considerations.”
“The equipment needed to be easy to operate, offer a high degree of functionality, while remaining immune to changes made by well-meaning, but unknowledgeable end users.”
“Compounding these issues, the equipment rack where the gear was to reside was quite small, so the use of a conventional mixer and DSP units was not really feasible. Armed with this information, we specified a Lectrosonics DM812 Digital Automatic Matrix Mixer.”
“The DM812 is interfaced with a Crestron wireless control system,” Hodson said, “and the interface modules that Lectrosonics Control and Applications Engineer Frank Gonzales created for this unit worked flawlessly.”
“Further, they enable the user to make simple adjustments directly from the Crestron control system’s touch panel. We also used the DM812’s macro capability to reconfigure the matrix so that the loudspeaker outputs would provide low level noise when the Judge directs a sidebar. Audio is controlled via RS-232 from the touch panel at the judge’s station.”
Hodson reports that since the installation it’s been smooth sailing. “After a few initial adjustments our customer reported great satisfaction at the way the system is working.”
“Participants are able to clearly understand what is being presented—without the ring of feedback—and the recordings being made during procedures are clear and make an excellent archive resource. This has been a very rewarding experience for everyone involved.”