Sydney Entertainment Centre have recently completed a multi-million dollar refurbishment of their foyer areas. Compact Monitor Systems Australia were commissioned to replace the entire public address system for the foyers, entry ways and immediate surrounds of the outside of the building. The venue was built in the mid 80s and had not had an upgrade of the public address system since then.
According to Bill Richardson, Managing Director, Compact Monitor Systems Australia, Sydney Entertainment Centre had ceiling speakers in odd clusters. Compact Monitor Systems Australia installed all new wiring as the old wiring was not up to the current AS/NZS 4000 wiring code. At the time of the original installation, it was fine, but since then all low voltage systems are required to have double insulated cabling. The rules have also recently changed to ensure all upgrades are treated as new installations.
Compact Monitor Systems Australia added a Shure 550L paging microphone and a couple of ports where they could use it in the building. They also introduced the chime system into the main PA, where it is used to be a standalone system run from back of house.
The 10 discreet zones housed a total of 91 Control 24CT Micro ceiling speakers, 7 Control 25T surface mounted speakers upstairs and 25 Control 25 AV speakers. Outdoor was serviced by Control 26T ceiling speakers.
Compact Monitor Systems Australia chose the Control 24CT because of their 70/100V line factor, small size and reliable audio reproduction and power handling capacity.
The hardest part of the project was the actual installation of the JBL ceiling speakers as the ceiling was constructed of thin metal slats that resemble C-channel. After a bit of trial and error, circles were cut with templates and aircraft ‘tin snip’ scissors and the holes were reinforced with steel rings.
Compact Monitor Systems Australia opted to use Crown CDI amplifiers (five CDI 1000 models) and a dbx ZonePRO 1260 digital signal processor as a master and a dbx ZonePRO 1261 as a slave.
The ZonePro line of products is reliable and the DSP options make it a suitable choice for venue installations. The ZonePRO is an easier product to use for the end user. Users can locally run volume on the inputs and on all the zone outputs, making it easy for untrained staff to use.
The ZonePRO is Ethernet compatible and offers a permanent log-in to the entertainment centre through VPN.
JBL Control 24CT Micro ceiling speakers, JBL Control 25 surface mounted speakers, JBL Control 25 Control 25 AV speakers, Shure 550L paging microphones and dbx ZonePRO 1260 digital signal processors are available from Jands.