Multiple Symetrix processors have been specified to provide powerful and versatile signal conditioning and routing at the newly constructed Monomoy Regional High School in Chatham, Massachusetts. Costing close to $60 million, the impressively-equipped and eco-friendly new school is the result of a collaboration between the Cape Cod towns of Chatham and Harwich.
　　Integral to realising their vision of a technologically advanced infrastructure is a flexible sound reinforcement system with five nodes focused on the auditorium, cafeteria, gymnasium, media centre and TV production studio. The fact that this was achieved is down to the efforts of two, locally-based operations: Cavanaugh Tocci Associates, who were charged with designing a sound system boasting the necessary flexibility, and SIGNET Electronic Systems, who undertook the installation and integration.
　　Based on positive previous experience of the DSPs’ performance, the SIGNET team elected to use one Symetrix SymNet Edge DSP and three SymNet Radius 12×8 open architecture Dante-scalable DSPs to provide signal processing and routing, with three SymNet xIn 12 and SymNet xOut 12 expanders supplementing analogue inputs and output counts where required. The DSPs’ support for Audinate’s Dante media networking technology - allowing all of the nodes to be connected transparently and efficiently via the building’s Ethernet cabling - was another important factor.
　　“Symetrix processors are simply more versatile and robust than those made by other manufacturers,” said Jay Vigneau, project engineer with SIGNET. “Because of that - and since their tech support is always timely and knowledgeable - our Symetrix installations are smooth and predictable.”
　　For the auditorium, Vigneau chose the SymNet Edge frame because he could outfit it with a digital input card to pair with the output from the FOH digital mixer. The other nodes use SymNet Radius 12×8 processors, with Vigneau able to accommodate additional I/O requirements via SymNet xIn 12 and SymNet xOut 12 expanders, which integrate seamlessly with the DSPs via Dante. Crestron processors supply an integrated user interface.
　　“In the auditorium and elsewhere, the Symetrix DSPs provide comprehensive signal processing, including intelligent auto-mixing for simple events with modest input counts. The systems are powerful, but also very easy to use,” he says.
　　Although all the nodes can tap inputs from other nodes via Dante, the school’s forward-thinking TV production studio relies on the integrated nature of the Dante network to capture content from anywhere in the school. “Monomoy plans to commonly record events via the TV production studio,” says Vigneau. “Moreover, they plan to regularly broadcast school events to the local community. Having a Dante backbone gives them that functionality.”