The QSC Q-Sys integrated System Platform has been chosen as the backbone of the audio systems at the Xinjiang International Expo Centre, the main regional conference and exhibition centre in north-west China.
Comprising two Core 1000 Q-Sys processors, together with multiple QSC PowerLight 3 amplifiers and speakers from the QSC WideLine, ILA, AcousticDesign and K Series, the QSC audio systems were designed by PCI, the exclusive QSC distributor in China, and installed in over 20 conference rooms at the centre.
The system was completed and made operational in time for the first China-Eurasia Economic Development & Cooperation Forum, held in the Xinjiang capital Ürümqi last Autumn.
Bordering Russia and several Central Asian states, Xinjiang is often regarded as a bridge from China to the rest of Asia and Europe, making it the perfect location for international trade fairs, exhibitions and economic forums. The conference center was designed with these nationally important functions in mind, and as such, has become a symbol of the new China in Ürümqi.
As with any other convention center used for international economic summits, the audio networks, PAs and conferencing systems at the Conference Centre had to be easy to use, reliable and flexible, with ample redundancy.
PCI recommended Q-Sys to the managers tasked with the project of upgrading the center’s audio systems: as an easily controllable, powerful system, scalable to a variety of applications, it was the perfect solution.
The Xinjiang Exhibition and Conference center has 22 conference rooms spread over 3 different floors. A single Q-Sys Core 1000 unit (with a second unit for redundancy) now manages all of the audio signals from the complex’s central control room, monitoring the operational state of all the system’s I/O Frame units, loudspeakers and PowerLight 3 amplifiers, and controlling the system-wide signal processing and routing.
During the Forum’s opening ceremony, for example, Q-Sys was used to route the audio from the main conference chamber to four other rooms around the Exhibition Center.
The largest room in the center is a 1500-seater auditorium, which incorporates its own dedicated Q-Sys I/O Frame, PowerLight 3 amps, AD-S282H AcousticDesign speakers, together with AD-C2100 ceiling speakers arranged in six zones, as the chamber can be divided up to six ways if required.
Another conference hall which uses QSC products extensively has a maximum capacity of 800, and was dedicated to press conferences during the Forum. It features a Q-Sys I/O Frame, PowerLight 3 amplification, and 12 WideLine-8 units, as well as AD-S282H speakers.
The smaller chambers, such as one of the 400-seater lecture halls used by the United Nations for press conferences during the China-Eurasia Forum, also benefited from QSC technology. This chamber again features a dedicated Q-Sys I/O Frame, with eight ceiling-suspended QSC ILA speakers driven by PowerLight 3s, and supplemented with AcousticDesign speakers around the chamber.
For the most select meetings between officials, such as those held during the forum by Keqiang Li, Vice-Premier of the State Council of China, a 150-seater conference room was used, employing QSC AD-C821R ceiling-mouted and AD-S282H ceiling-suspended speakers, together with K Series Active loudspeakers.
Following the Expo, the Exhibition Centre’s management commented: “The Q-Sys platform was so powerful and easy to use, it allowed us to simply focus on the running of the conference itself. It proved itself absolutely ideal for this kind of project.”