Q-Sys Integrated Cores Unlock New Scottish Markets For QSC Audio

Since the launch in early 2012 of the QSC Q-Sys Core 250i, Scottish audio visual integrator Black Light has designed and installed several QSC audio routing and processing systems based around this latest addition to the Q-Sys product family.

Recent Core 250i-based Q-Sys installations carried out by Edinburgh-based Black Light have ranged from simple systems in which the Q-Sys Core manages and routes audio to loudspeakers and amplifiers from third-party manufacturers, to projects comprised solely of QSC equipment.

One such recently completed installation is the new PA system at the Dundee Ice Arena in Scotland, where the integrated Core 250i serves audio to two loudspeaker arrays, each comprising two KLA12 Active Line Array elements and one KLA181 subwoofer.

The KLA arrays are positioned over the ice rink and are the main PA loudspeakers at the arena. Additional angled AD-S82H passive speakers are mounted near the ceiling, acting as fills for the audience seating areas around the edge of the arena; these are driven by a pair of QSC CX702 amplifiers. The passive speakers and the CX amps are also fed by the Q-Sys Core 250i.

“Since it was introduced, Q-Sys has offered the twin advantage of being more powerful and friendlier to end-users than competing audio management systems — it’s very easy to design systems that can be operated by non-technical staff,” comments Phil Haldane, Business Development Manager at Black Light. “Until now, Q-Sys was usually more expensive than the other systems on the market, but the arrival of the integrated Cores, the 250i and the 500i, has changed that.

“It’s opened up different markets, for example churches and local authority venues like schools that probably wouldn’t have considered Q Sys in the past.”

Recent installations carried out by Black Light underscore Haldane’s point. The Dundee Ice Arena PA system was a local authority project (the venue is owned by Dundee City Council) and the integrator has completed two other Q-Sys installations based around Core 250i processors in the local education sector in the last six months, as well as another Core 250i-based installation in a central Edinburgh church.

“Q-Sys has much to offer in terms of raw firepower and overall system integration, but is also very cost-efficient with the Core 250i,” adds Haldane. “That was definitely a factor in winning the tender for the Dundee Ice Arena, and it’s continuing to secure us new business.”

All of the QSC systems mentioned were supplied by Shure Distribution UK (SDUK), the QSC distributor in the United Kingdom.

“The Q-Sys Core 250i and 500i offer integrators an easy way to build powerful, flexible audio networks at a low cost, which is attractive to clients,” adds SDUK’s Dave Phillips. “Black Light’s recent successes with Q-Sys are typical of the opportunities brought about by these new integrated Core processors.”

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