Terracom PA System | Stratford-Upon-Avon School

“Warwick Audio Visual did a great job, we’re really pleased with the new PA System. We loved their friendly and approachable style and their amazing work ethic. It really made the project a success.”

Mark Grundy – ICT Network Manager.

While many parents have been overjoyed that their little ones have been at home for six weeks, Warwick Audio Visual has been relentless in our efforts to support local institutions ready for the new academic year. With fresh challenges for pupils and staff alike as the education sector shifts and grows, we were on hand to help Stratford-Upon-Avon Secondary School with their new system.

We were contacted by Stratford-Upon-Avon School to decommission their previous, outdated, PA system and integrate a fresh system based off Terracom technology, an audio over-IP decoder system with Biamp Amps to boot. With over 60 speakers, 17 zones and 4000 Meters of cable with only a week and abit to do it, we were asked “are we up for the job?”.

We showed them we were.

With delivery of fresh speaker cable not arriving until Tuesday, Monday we worked diligently to decommission their previous system. With our new lead engineer George carefully deconstructing their existing rack and amplifiers, our engineers took to the corridors to remove old Ceiling, wall mounted and Bi-Directional speakers, taking great care to remove the previous speaker cable from their ceiling to keep it nice and tidy.

Tuesday came the day where we began to run cable, with two teams of two, we tackled a floor each. Zone by zone we ran our low-smoke, zero halogen speaker cable. By making sure to run the cable carefully and considerately, we fashioned it to the pre-existing trays above the ceiling, while considerately replacing any existing ceiling tiles we deemed too old or damaged. The speakers were then wired in and placed where the old ones sat. Then it was rinse and repeat.

That week was spent going corridor by corridor and running the cable, then fixing the speaker to the ceiling tile. We worked diligently to make sure each speaker was cleanly installed, all facing the correct direction, perfectly lined up and aesthetically pleasing. Over the site there were four cabinets in which we would install our Biamp Amplifiers, with careful consideration we ran the cable back to these units and terminated them to the amplifier, making sure to label each cable as we go. Then came our Terracom EX-II decoder units. These were designed to interface with our Tannoy over the network. We installed fresh rack shelves to house these as we wired them to the inputs of the amp.

As this was happening, our Commissioning Engineer Owen sat down with the client to discuss their needs for the system. With the announcement system needing to page the whole school and individual zones, as well as run the school bell on a schedule, we were asked to integrate a lockdown alarm. This alarm would alert the entire school of an emergency situation, allowing students and staff to respond appropriately, with the PA system then able to send instructions. The client also wanted this alarm to be able to be triggered by a switch in the building, allowing for quick response times.

We then set about commissioning the system. Our first port of call was to set and record IP addresses as well as MAC addresses to allow for smooth configuration, we connected our Tannoy and began to link our devices together. We then tested each zone by paging the device and testing the sound quality. With careful consideration we increased the gain and configured the Equaliser settings to produce crisp, clear audio. With kit labelled and the system tested, we then configured the UI to provide a user-friendly experience, with clear menus allowing staff to page different zones.

With the school bell working, the lockdown alarm in place and the paging system tested in every zone, we made sure to provide the team at Stratford-Upon-Avon School with a thorough user guide and technical quite to ensure that the after-care of the project was fully in place. They know that, if they encounter any problems, we will be on hand quickly to deliver the solution.