Electro-Voice

A recently opened shopping center in the Sydney suburb of Ryde is using a wealth of paging and BGM systems supplied from Bosch’s Communications Systems family of brands.

Top Ryde shopping center was recently opened by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, following three phases of construction. It is widely regarded as something of a phoenix from the flames, following the demolition of the old shopping centre at the same site in 2007. The 78,000-sq.-m. space is home to some 290 retailers, including La Strada, a Myer department store, and Woolworths, and can accommodate over 3,000 vehicles below its multi-storey development.

Bosch was commissioned to supply the main paging and BGM systems for the entire mall, with a Dynacord ProMatrix DPM4000 system offering paging from three Dynacord Digital Paging Consoles based on various levels of the building, all connecting to the digital matrix manager. Additional integrated chime and alarm signal generators, plus vocal recordings and playback, are also included. The inputs and internally generated signals are mixed inside the matrix, sent to the output channels, fed into an Electro-Voice NetMax N8000 system controller, and finally on to Bosch Plena zone amplifiers.

Elsewhere, an Electro-Voice NetMax N8000 system has been installed for playing BGM sources –including 20 channels from Satellite Music Australia and a Bosch Plena DVD player and tuner – to 12 dedicated zones, including an outdoor area and the extensive car parking levels. The digital audio system controller is loaded with four 8-channel DSP modules, to support up to 32 channels.

The NetMax N8000 is racked in a central management control room, but has been configured for IRIS-Net control from a PC in the security manager’s office. Bosch senior engineer Bryan Davidson designed a bespoke GUI for facility managers – including electrical operations manager Dave Irvine – on the EV IRIS-Net V2.4 software, for which the Scene Manager provides customized control and recall of DSP parameters within NetMax. Sound levels, DSP, and mutes can be controlled to all 12 zones from the computer, and the SPL levels have been programmed to rise later in the evenings and lower in the mornings to reflect the ambient background levels of increased activity.

The mall interior is furnished with hundreds of Bosch ceiling speakers, while the outdoor area is served by weatherproofed Bosch column speakers, where levels are constantly monitored in order to comply with residential noise pollution regulations.