The new Clay County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Green Cove Springs, Florida (just south of Jacksonville), which commenced operation in May, incorporates a Lectrosonics ASPEN SPN1624 16-input/24-output audio processor to manage a wide range of audio signals inherent in a facility of this nature.
Jacksonville-based Florida Sound Engineering Company, a commercial A/V design-build firm serving the greater North Florida and South Georgia region, was contracted to handle the design and deployment of the EOC’s new audiovisual system.
Robert A. Cole, the firm’s president and owner, and project manager Kevin Schnarr, selected the Lectrosonics ASPEN processor over a competing system during the design stage of the project. Cole discussed those attributes that made the ASPEN processor the best choice.
“For the system we designed,” explains Cole, “the mixer must service the entire facility, which is separated into eleven audio zones. This mixer needed to accommodate eight computer audio inputs, three wireless microphone inputs, two cable TV receiver inputs, two BluRay player inputs, and an input for telephone paging. Control of the system is handled by a Crestron Rack2 controller with two wireless touch panels and four wall-mounted wired touch panels.
“Given all that we had to pull together, we were very impressed with the fact that the Lectrosonics ASPEN processor integrates mixing, signal routing, audio processing, and control into a single unit. This was a distinct advantage over the primary competing system we looked at that would have required more of a ‘system assembly’ approach.”
The Clay County EOC is a two-story building consisting of 75 rooms on the first floor and 36 rooms on the second floor. Housed in the building is an office for the Clay County Fire Chief, an office for the Clay County Communications Director, a 12-station Communications/Dispatch Center, and a 36 seat Incident Command Center, along with offices for support staff.
The main control center measures roughly 60 feet by 120 feet and consists of two large screen projectors and six large tables with computers and ancillary equipment. In addition to managing all the audio and signal processing for the command center room, the ASPEN processor handles paging and audio routing throughout the entire complex.
“During the programming stage,” adds Cole, “we encountered some challenges in terms of controlling the ASPEN over RS-232 via the Crestron in the manner we had originally envisioned. Our programmers contacted Lectrosonics’ technical support staff, who worked with our team to help them gain the control we were looking for. They also helped us write some macros for a few routines we wanted to incorporate.
“The Lectrosonics support team was extremely helpful and responsive. I was very impressed with their ability to quickly understand what we were looking to accomplish and provide the guidance we sought.”
With the Clay County EOC fully operational, Cole reports that his client has been extremely complimentary of the overall A/V system design and its ability to manage the wide range of audio sources.