HARMAN’s BSS Audio Introduces Soundweb™ Contrio Wall Controllers Providing Enhanced System Functionality for End-Users in Variety of Applications

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — HARMAN’s BSS Audio today introduced its Soundweb Contrio family of wall controllers, designed to provide greater system control and flexibility for a variety of fixed install applications. The Soundweb Contrio wall controller lineup features four models that, in addition to advanced multiple zone control, can easily be employed in a room-combining and splitting environment. The Soundweb Contrio platform and its two initial products, the Contrio wall controller range and Contrio Server, are the first within the Soundweb Contrio family that will ultimately provide enhanced system control capability and audio routing flexibility for a variety of applications.

All Soundweb Contrio products will be backward compatible with existing BSS Audio Soundweb London devices, providing the widest and most comprehensive choice of audio processing, distribution and control devices available in a single system solution today.

Contrio wall controllers are powered via PoE (Power over Ethernet) and are compatible with HARMAN HiQnet™ products. Simple controls and multi-colored visual feedback and displays make the controllers approachable and straightforward for non-technical users. Multiple modes of operation allow system integrators to tailor the functionality of the controller to the requirements of the application and its users.

“The Soundweb Contrio Wall Controllers are designed to provide a simplistic, yet powerful interface that allows for greater control of audio for a variety of applications and venues. These controllers along with the other members of the Contrio family are designed to provide integrators and end-users alike with better control, management and ultimately, performance, of their audio systems,” stated Iain Gregory, Market Manager, Installed Sound at HARMAN Signal Processing.

Soundweb Contrio controllers are scheduled to be available in September 2014 in white or back finish and EU or US form factors.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 15,200 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.1 billion for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2014.

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HARMAN’s BSS Audio Introduces Soundweb Contrio Control And Media Server: Provides Advanced Control Capabilities for Professional Audio Networking

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Raising the performance threshold of large-scale professional audio networking in stadiums, arenas and large fixed installations, HARMAN’s BSS Audio today debuted its Soundweb Contrio system control server at InfoComm 2014. Now, integration professionals have the ability to design network architectures that place advanced system control, system management and media server functionality at a central point of the network and, in doing so, build systems that are more efficient, more practical and better performing. At just 1U rack space, the Soundweb Contrio server is a headless system controller device fully configurable with HiQnet Audio Architect™ software as part of the HARMAN Architectural Media Systems solution. Backwards-compatible with BSS Audio’s Soundweb London family, the Soundweb Contrio server is the first product within the new Soundweb Contrio family that will ultimately provide enhanced processing capability and greater flexibility for a variety of applications.

Advanced system control

The Soundweb Contrio server enables comprehensive system control logic configuration, both with a similar ‘wiring’ design environment as exposed in Audio Architect for existing Soundweb London devices, and a new open scripted Lua environment. The overall system is made even more efficient by running a logic system separate from the audio devices, which frees up processing capability and reduces the amount of hardware required.

System-wide presets can be configured at the parameter level, enabling a very precise level of detail in the creation of system reset functionality.

An event scheduler enables comprehensive preset recall – whether at a system level, a device level or at a parameter level.

The Soundweb Contrio server also provides a single network clock to provide an accurate synchronization of all HiQnet devices on the network.

System management

The server includes a system self-healing functionality. By monitoring the Ethernet switch and ports to which all devices are connected, a day-to-day operator need only replace a device on the same switch port and the server will automatically remotely configure all the addressing and configuration of the new device to match the old. In this way, it is not necessary to launch a software application to add replacement devices to the system.

The Soundweb Contrio server monitors all HiQnet devices and logs all warning or error conditions. The event logs of individual devices are also aggregated to provide a centralized monitoring location for the full system.

The server can send email information regarding the logged events, the degree of severity configurable within Audio Architect.

Media server

The Soundweb Contrio server supports both HARMAN BLU link and Audinate Dante™ audio transports in order that it can fit appropriately with a variety of system configurations.

In addition to its ability to recall system-wide presets, the event scheduler enables message playback over the audio network.

As with the Soundweb London series of products, the Soundweb Contrio server is configured within HiQnet Audio Architect – HARMAN’s common control software application for all devices in a sound system, from microphone to speaker. To facilitate system setup, HiQnet Audio Architect is unique in its graphical representation of the installed sound venue as the system design environment.

The Soundweb Contrio server runs an embedded version of HiQnet Audio Architect and is therefore immediately capable of providing integrators and end-users comprehensive management of all system presets, backup, storage of specific venue setup modes, event aggregation and scheduling.

“The Soundweb Contrio server provides audio professionals, systems integrators and end users with the best of both worlds,” said Iain Gregory, Market Manager, BSS Audio. “It provides enterprise-grade architecture and performance functionality coupled with a simple, intuitive user ecosystem comprising headless devices and wall controllers. The Soundweb Contrio server is the critical first step in enabling systems designers and their customers with exactly the right tools when they each need them.”

“By leveraging the power of HARMAN Audio Architect, and the vast number of devices from microphone to loudspeaker it now controls, we are providing the strongest possible foundation for the Soundweb Contrio server and delivering the most comprehensive audio system management platform available to date,” stated Adam Holladay, Market Manager, System Development and Integration Group, HARMAN Professional.

The Soundweb Contrio server is the first of the next generation of backward-compatible BSS Audio products and is designed to work in conjunction with BSS Audio’s new series of Soundweb Contrio wall controllers. The controllers are available in white or black and provide visual feedback for end-users to easily manage and adjust audio operation in a specific environment.

The headless appliance is just 1U rack space high and features a 500GB solid-state drive.

The Soundweb Contrio server will be available in September 2014.

HARMAN (www.harman.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 15,200 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $5.1 billion for the last twelve months ended March 31, 2014.

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HARMAN Professional Audio System Rolls Out at bluO Bowling Center In Chandigarh, India

CHANDIGARH, India – PVR bluO Rhythm and Bowl, a new entertainment destination concept in India, bills itself as India’s largest bowling center, with locations throughout the country. Much more than just a place to knock down pins, bluO’s newest Chandigarh location boasts 25 lanes and offers music, world cuisine, two karaoke rooms and internationally renowned DJ’s. Its lounges are the scene of regular Bollywood celebrity sightings. bluO’s striking interior features a ceiling with “rippling wave” lighting and other ultramodern design touches – and a HARMAN Professional sound system to keep the good times rolling.

“As a destination, PVR bluO epitomizes a new bowling facility standard due to its capability to infuse energy and excitement through sound. When HARMAN was approached by the management of PVR, we knew our goal was to ensure the necessary blend of quality acoustics to match the aesthetics of the venue. Upon completion of the project, we had a great sport destination with a world-class sound system, delivering a great experience to visitors,” advised Karan Kathuria, National Sales Manager, Installed Sound, HARMAN India.

Resonance Audio, a New Delhi-based system integration firm, was responsible for the design, layout, installation and programming of the bluO system.  A JBL loudspeaker complement of four STX 815M two-way 15-inch loudspeakers, four STX 818S 18-inch subwoofers, two Control 28s loudspeakers, a SB210 dual-10-inch compact subwoofer, and six Control 29AV’s which feature a rotatable high-frequency horn, enabling either horizontal or vertical mounting for added installation flexibility, cover the venue.

Audio signal processing and distribution is handled by a BSS Audio BLU-100 signal processor with digital audio bus, BSS BLU-BOB break out box output expander and a Soundcraft EPM-6 mixing console. Crown amplifiers, including one XTi 4002, one XLS 2500 and three XTi 6002’s drive the loudspeakers. Resonance Audio also supplied four AKG HT-45 wireless microphones for paging and announcements, karaoke and visiting DJs and entertainers.

“Our primary needs for this installation were good speech intelligibility and very high SPL levels with uniform low-frequency distribution and exceptional audio reproduction throughout the facility,” said Raghu Srinivasan, Managing Director at Resonance Audio. “We had a lot of ground to cover – the bowling alley itself, the lounges, the bar and restaurant and other areas, and we selected the particular JBL loudspeaker models on an application-specific basis to best cover the areas in which they were installed, and because their form factors made it easy to place them where they would not intrude upon bluO’s decor.”

Overall, the system was designed to maintain a high signal-to-noise ratio and have enough headroom to prevent clipping. “As you can imagine a bowling alley is a high ambient noise level environment, and we knew the power capability of the Crown amps, combined with the wide coverage patterns and efficiency of the JBL loudspeakers would be more than up to the task.”

Srinivasan chose the BSS BLU-100 because its flexible programming options enabled him to configure the system for optimal performance. The BLU-100 and Soundcraft console enable the system to deliver different volume levels for different zones of the venue, without being complicated to use.

“This project needed a system that staff members can easily operate without having to rely on a dedicated audio person. For this reason and because it’s constantly in use delivering high SPL on a regular basis, the audio system has to be totally reliable and foolproof. We have relied on HARMAN Professional products in all of our large-scale installations for years, and our belief in their capabilities has only been strengthened with time,” stated Srinivasan. “We are proud to have been an integral part of such a prestigious project and are more than delighted to have executed it with such extraordinary results,” he concluded.

Commenting on the installation, Bhanu Yadav, Vice President, Operations for PVR bluO stated, “This project was a major success, and we now have an amazing audio experience with a system that is both clear and powerful.”

“Our work with Resonance Audio and this particular installation underscores HARMAN India’s commitment to serving a host of vertical market applications that are now demanding higher quality audio solutions in their venues,” stated Prashant Govindan, Director, India Operations HARMAN Professional. “At HARMAN we are uniquely positioned to meet this need with our dedicated systems approach providing these users with all the elements required for a first-class professional audio system.”

HARMAN designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 14,800 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.7 billion for the last twelve months ended December 31, 2013.

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Great Sound Is In the Can At Pepsi Center With HARMAN’s BSS Audio, Crown and JBL Professional

DENVER, Colorado — Known to Denver denizens as “The Can,” the 20,000-plus capacity Pepsi Center is home of the NBA Denver Nuggets, NHL Colorado Avalanche and the National Lacrosse League Colorado Mammoth, and is also host to concerts and special events. The arena opened in 1999 and has been in continuous use since then – including its original sound system. When the Pepsi Center decided to upgrade to a massive new state-of-the-art scoreboard in 2013, management determined it would also be a good time to replace the venue’s audio system from top to bottom.

Colorado Springs, Colorado sound contractor LVW Electronics and Dallas, Texas system designer Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon & Williams, Inc. (WJHW) had installed the original system and were retained to perform the upgrade, using HARMAN BSS Audio, Crown, and JBL components.

LVW CEO Rusty Griffith pointed out, “The fact that both firms had a history with the venue made us the logical choice – we were under a tight timetable on this project and were given seven weeks to complete a job that would usually take over three months.” LVW was given the go-ahead in spring 2013 and Griffith and his crew had to be finished in time for the start of the Pepsi Center’s fall line-up. “We worked day and night all summer long.”

LVW and WJHW chose a JBL loudspeaker system comprised of six columns of 10 JBL VLA901-MF-16 line array loudspeakers, hung around the perimeter of the arena. The VLA901-MF-16 was chosen for its ability to provide high-volume sound reinforcement at throw distances beyond the reach of traditional loudspeaker designs. Each loudspeaker is equipped with dual 15-inch woofers, dual 8-inch cone midrange compression drivers and three 1.5-inch high-frequency compression drivers. In addition, four JBL ASB6128V dual 18-inch subwoofers are hung directly behind the each of the 10 main line arrays. The loudspeakers and subs are powered by 44 Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers, plus 11 Crown CTs 2000 amps to drive additional loudspeakers at the back of the arena.

“JBL’s VLA line has been a strong choice for us in arenas for the past few years. The overall sound quality is excellent and they provide higher output and increased intelligibility,” explained Mark Graham, Associate for WJHW. “We paired the VLA loudspeakers with the 4-channel Crown amplifiers, which we chose based on previous successes and the overall strong reliability reputation of the I-Tech HD line.”

The system is networked using four BSS Audio Soundweb London BLU-806 signal processors and six BLU-326 I/O expanders, both Dante-enabled products. Control for the entire Pepsi Center audio system is provided by HARMAN’s HiQnet Audio Architect™ software, a common control platform for all devices from microphone to loudspeaker. “Using Audio Architect was a big deal,” Graham noted, “considering how new the software was at the time we did this installation. It paid off though – it’s a great way to control the system and its audio management capabilities are extensive. The venue’s ownership was very pleased when he saw we had the capability to put everything onto one software platform.”

“This installation turned out to be fantastic in terms of equal coverage to every area of the arena,” said Griffith. “The performance of the VLA loudspeakers and the subwoofers is so consistent that there’s very little seat-to-seat variation. The Pepsi Center project turned out to be one of the best examples of this I have heard.”

In addition to performance, one of the main benefits of choosing HARMAN according to Griffith was the support LVW and WJHW received from the company throughout the project. “We looked at various manufacturers’ solutions. I’ve always liked JBL and the HARMAN product line for its excellent sound quality and solid engineering and the support they provide – especially on this project, given the time crunch we were under – is second to none.”

In addition to its capability as a full stand-alone sound reinforcement system, the new system is designed so it can be used along with a tour sound system for concerts and other events. If a band or a convention comes to town and their rental system doesn’t have enough coverage, they can readily connect to the Pepsi Center system to supplement the audio.

For more information about LVW Electronics, please visit www.lvw.com.

For more information about Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon and Williams, please visit www.wjhw.com.

HARMAN designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, HARMAN Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 14,800 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.7 billion for the last twelve months ended December 31, 2013.

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HARMAN’s BSS Audio introduces a cost effective addition to the Soundweb™ London Processor Line

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – HARMAN’s BSS Audio today announced the addition of a cost-effective signal processor to its acclaimed Soundweb™ London family of digital signal processors. The new Soundweb London BLU-50 represents a premium, open-architecture solution in the form of a highly flexible, cost-effective and scalable package.

The BLU-50 is a half-rack width processor that offers a fixed configuration of four inputs and four outputs, configurable signal processing, logic processing and BLU link. The device can be powered with the included 12VDC power supply but can accept 12-48VDC via a terminal block connector. The BLU-50 can also be powered with PoE+ via the Ethernet port, allowing the device to be powered, configured, controlled and monitored using a single Cat 5e cable.

The analog inputs of the BLU-50 provide software configurable gain in 6dB steps up to +48dB per channel and software selectable Phantom Power per channel. Phantom Power, Signal Present and Clip information per channel is easily accessible, without the requirement for a PC, from clear front panel LED indication.

The BLU-50 features BLU link, a low latency, fault tolerant digital audio bus of 48 channels, which uses standard Category 5e cabling giving a distance of 100m between compatible devices. Fiber media converters can be used to increase the distance between devices to over 10km (6.2 miles) using single mode fiber.

The BLU-50 is configured, controlled and monitored from HiQnet Audio Architect™ or HiQnet London Architect™ and is compatible with other members of the Soundweb London family. Its 48 channel BLU link bus represents channels 1-48 of the larger 256 channel BLU link bus when integrated with the BLU-800, BLU-320, BLU-160, BLU-120, BLU-BIB and BLU-BOB devices. Up to 60 BLU link compatible devices can share channels on a single bus.

As with other Soundweb London devices, 12 Control Inputs, six Logic Outputs and an RS-232 port allow the BLU-50 to be integrated with other compatible devices.

“With so much capability packed into such a small device, combined with its powering and mounting flexibility, the BLU-50 is the most versatile and affordable open-architecture processor we’ve created to date. The BLU-50 further extends the scalability of the Soundweb London platform and represents a major milestone in the broader applicability of open-architecture solutions,” stated, Iain Gregory, Market Manager for installed sound, HARMAN Signal Processing.

HARMAN designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The Company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of 14,800 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.7 billion for the last twelve months ended December 31, 2013.

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HARMAN Professional Offers Scalable, High-Performance Audio and Lighting Systems for The World’s Most Prestigious Stadiums and Arenas

NORTHRIDGE, California – Whether it’s a match-winning goal in Brazil, a walk-off homerun in New York City, a touchdown in Denver, a slam dunk in Los Angeles or a gold medal race in China, the sonic atmosphere of any stadium or arena are vital to the sports viewing experience. HARMAN Professional’s top-of-the-line microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, mixing consoles and lighting solutions have been installed in the most prestigious venues across the globe and entertain millions of fans each year. 

“HARMAN has been on the field and in the stands for decades as the latest awe-inspiring stadiums have taken shape year after year,” states Scott Robbins, Executive Vide President of Sales, HARMAN Professional. “We offer full-scale solutions with products from our various brands, including AKG, BSS Audio, Crown, JBL, Soundcraft and Martin Lighting, to enhance the customer experience while ensuring installation capabilities are efficient and can exceed the expectations of system integrators, designers and stadium owners. We understand the importance of sound, video, and lighting during a sporting event and work to help bring an acoustically and visually stunning experience for every game on the schedule!”

HARMAN is uniquely positioned to provide complete audio and lighting systems that deliver world-class results and ease-of-use across the signal chain, from microphones to loudspeakers and everywhere in between. High-quality design and reliable performance ensure that all venues, with capacities ranging from a few thousand to 100,000, are covered. HARMAN Professional brands manufacture a broad range of products that can scale up to match the size and needs of any venue, from the high school to the professional and Olympics level.

Noteworthy venues across the globe that rely on HARMAN Professional’s sound reinforcement technology include: Yankee Stadium, STAPLES Center, Georgia Dome, Sports Authority Field at Mile High, MetLife Stadium, Arcadia University Sports Field, BBVA Compass Stadium, Lucas Oil Stadium, Hong Kong Stadium, PGE Arena, the Water Cube, Sydney Football Stadium, Simonds Stadium and Manchester United Stadium, and many more.

In addition, HARMAN Professional provides a wealth of web-based resources for customers, including free software, white papers, application guides, and online training on audio topics and system design. These resources are used by professional consultants and integrators and are accessible to anyone interested in becoming more knowledgeable about audio and lighting technology and applications.

For more information on HARMAN Professional’s offerings for stadiums and other sports venues, please visit www.harmanpro.com

HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 14,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013.  

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HARMAN’s BSS Audio at the Heart of Audio Upgrade for England’s Coventry Cathedral

COVENTRY, United Kingdom – In need of a complete overhaul of its audio signal distribution, the historic Coventry Cathedral recently underwent a major upgrade, bringing it into the digital age with a HARMAN BSS Audio Soundweb London system. The famous Coventry Cathedral, which was destroyed during World War II and eventually rebuilt, has been a place of Christian worship for over 1,000 years. The installation was handled by AV provider RaceTech AV led by Robin Dibble, head of audio engineering and responsible for an upgrade to the church’s audio system 20 years ago. All BSS Audio equipment was supplied by UK HARMAN distributor Sound Technology, Ltd.

With an outdated analog audio system, the quality of the cathedral’s audio was suffering. When Dibble was brought back to update the system, he knew a BSS Audio Soundweb London solution would be the best for the needs of the facility. “With our original solution, no matter what area of the Cathedral a microphone was plugged into, the system was inherently time aligned in both directions, both up and down the length of the building,” remembered Dibble. “We used a huge rack of hand-wired summing amps, signal delays and modular automatic microphone mixers.”

More than two decades later, the same solution is easily attainable with modern digital electronics from BSS Audio. “This provides greater reliability, lower energy consumption and lower running costs,” added Dibble.

Dibble deployed a BSS Audio Soundweb London BLU-160, configured with 16 mic/line inputs. By expanding the I/O capacity with an 8-input BLU-BIB and two 8-output BLU-BOB breakout boxes, Dibble was able to increase the routing capability to 24-in/16-out, using BSS Audio’s BLU link digital audio bus between devices.

“Using Soundweb has made everything so much easier,” Dibble explained. “What was previously a huge issue, with so many channels requiring EQ and delay, is now a breeze — and there is so much processing power that just one BLU-160 is operating at only 52% capacity. And since the entire solution is built into Soundweb, it provides a completely different way of optimizing the sound.”

“As for BLU link, this provides big system cost savings as there are no network switches, no extra cards and it’s self redundant. The result is a better sound quality, and I have only had positive comments, as no one believed such a sound as this would be possible,” added Dibble.

The base for this system is installed in a console near the rear of the cathedral, for use by the clergy. In addition, the equipment rack, which houses the amps, DSP and radio receivers, is in a dedicated room immediately in the back.

Within the church, the reaction to the upgrade has been overwhelmingly positive as well, “The audio installation provided by RaceTech has greatly improved the audio quality of our corporate worship and the diverse range of events the Cathedral hosts. The sound is clear and evenly distributed, and the system is coping well, utilized in isolated areas for small gatherings through to full congregations of 1200 people,” said Jenny Thurston, Head Verger for Coventry Cathedral.

For Dibble, the BSS Audio Soundweb London system has made the whole process incredibly straightforward. “The BSS experience is never anything other than positive. I have never looked elsewhere as this has been by far the most cost-effective solution.”

HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 14,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013.

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HARMAN’S BSS Audio Handles Audio Processing and Networking for Wisconsin’s Life Church

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Since its founding in the year 2000 with 35 people attending a service in a high school auditorium, Wisconsin’s Life Church has enjoyed continued growth. It now occupies two locations and in May 2013 completed an expansion of its Germantown facility from 17,000 to 42,000 square feet, and the church can now accommodate more than 2,000 people. As part of its expansion, Life Church installed a completely new sound system, with HARMAN’s BSS Audio Soundweb London BLU-100 signal processor handling all signal processing and networking throughout the facility.

Lafayette, CO systems contractor Summit Audio Systems (www.summitintegrated.com) specializes in installing audio, video, lighting and acoustics for the worship market. In 2011, Summit teamed up with the management of Life Church to begin the design and build process for the church’s expansion. Shane Beeson, Church Relationship Manager for Summit A/V noted that Life Church wanted a worship center that would be architecturally beautiful, with the look of a prestigious performing arts center, yet have the acoustics to support everything from the pastor speaking to a full “rock and roll worship experience.” In addition, the audio needed to be distributed throughout the facility.

Beeson chose the Soundweb London BLU-100 signal processor along with a BLU-BOB output expander because of its flexibility, ease of use and quality. “BSS Audio provides a high-quality product that is powerful but also has a software platform that is easy to program,” he noted.

The BLU-100 handles all the audio processing for the worship center facility. In the sanctuary, the BLU-100 processes the output to the main, delay, down-fill and front-fill speakers and subwoofers, and it also processes and routes the audio to the main lobby, entranceway and other areas.

One of the benefits of the BLU-100, Beeson notes, is that it can interface with other BSS Audio products to create a system that is scalable to the number of inputs and outputs needed for a project. “For the Life Church installation, the BLU-BOB gave us the ability to expand the BLU-100 to provide the additional outputs we needed,” Beeson said. “The BLU-BOB gave us more outputs at a cost savings that was significant compared to a larger DSP option. Thanks to this capability, BSS Audio provided the flexibility we needed to get the job done on time, to spec and on budget.”

HARMAN (www.HARMAN.com) designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of infotainment and audio solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional markets. It is a recognized world leader across its customer segments with premium brands including AKG®, Harman Kardon®, Infinity®, JBL®, Lexicon®, and Mark Levinson® and leading-edge connectivity, safety and audio technologies. The company is admired by audiophiles across multiple generations and supports leading professional entertainers and the venues where they perform. More than 25 million automobiles on the road today are equipped with HARMAN audio and infotainment systems. HARMAN has a workforce of about 14,000 people across the Americas, Europe, and Asia and reported sales of $4.3 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013.

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BSS Audio Provides Ultimate Control For Extravagant Atlantis Hotel In Dubai

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — In what is considered to be the largest fixed sound installation project in the region, BSS Audio provided sound control in the brand new Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. The sound system covers all hotel restaurants, lobbies, corridors, visitor attractions, and retail outlets within the venue.

For the installation, 31 Soundweb London BLU-80 units, 10 BLU-32s, and six BLU-16s were utilized. All of these Soundweb London units offers configurable I/O, configurable signal processing and CobraNet audio and has open architecture which is fully configurable through HiQnet™ London Architect. The system also features 17 BLU-10s, 12 BLU-3s, and seven BLU-6s.

According to Stacey Lewis, sales and marketing manager for GSL Professional, the regional distributor for Harman products in the UAE, the Atlantis Hotel had very specific needs for the sound system. “The system needed to be easy to operate, with a common operating environment in terms of control in local zones and areas. Additionally, they needed a central system control with monitoring, scalability and flexibility, to accommodate potential future expansion plans or requirements.”

Additional Harman products that were utilized included Crown amplifiers. Thirty-five CTs 8200, eight CTs 4200 and 11 CTs 600 amplifiers were installed throughout the hotel. The amplifiers are networked and monitored on the same system as the Soundweb DSP system.

Dave Wilts, senior associate at Shen Milsom & Wilke, an acoustic consulting firm, explained the decision to specify BSS products for the Atlantis Hotel. “A large resort such as the Atlantis typically has extensive AV requirements. We wanted to provide the hotel operations staff with the most "easily managed" AV systems as possible. The BSS line provided a reliable architecture we could leverage for resort-wide, meta-level control of the BGM (background music) systems. For our completely IP-based AV systems, the IP tools and products from BSS offered the best solution, and support, for the project."

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BSS Audio at The Center Of Sound In Austria’s New Praterdome

In an impressive installation that is a display of ultimate fidelity and power, BSS Audio Soundweb™ London was utilized for the Praterdome, one of the largest and most modern nightclubs in Austria. The nightclub has two levels, four dance floors and 12 theme bars, with DJs playing music styles from various decades and styles including, house, techno, R&B, soul, 70s, 80s, and 90s. The system was installed by German based sound integrator FACE. The installation features signal processing and audio distribution by Soundweb London BLU-160 devices.

Opened in October 2008, Praterdome is owned by MPC (Music Park Concepts), which spent over seven million Euros in the development of the nightclub. “We needed a sound system that was going to effectively cover the entire venue. With people constantly moving all over the facility, the sound quality needed to be consistent,” stated Praterdome’s manager Thomas Zuchner.

Soundweb London features a low latency, fault tolerant digital audio bus of 256 channels which uses standard Category 5e cabling giving a distance of 100m between compatible devices. The BSS Audio MC-1 fiber optic media converter can be used to increase the distance between devices to over 10km (6.2 miles) using single mode fiber.

Additionally, JBL speakers were installed throughout the club. This includes 41 JBL SRX 728s, 18 JBL SRX 728s, and 16 JBL SRX 715s. Forty JBL Control 26Cs were incorporated as well. Additional Harman products in the installation include multiple Crown XTi 1000 amplifiers and CT3000 amplifiers. A total of 130 speakers and subwoofers create a sound system with a capacity of 100,000 watts.

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