Case Study & Installation Portfolio

Royal Holloway Student's Union

The management team at Royal Holloway approached Instigate Media for a state-of-the-art audio/visual system that would bring their union building up to date. Flexibility, reliability and sonic quality was the design brief, with a complex audio/visual routing system included. Two separate bar areas needed to be covered, plus another bar area upstairs and a variety of audio sends around the building.

Instigate Media's System designer Mike Wheeler based the system around three core elements - a Biamp Audia™ SOLO 8x8 matrix, a Cue™ touchscreen system and a ProCon Technology 8x8 A/V matrix. Says Wheeler "These core elements gave me the flexibility I needed to allow complete independent control over the two bar areas. From the Cue touchscreen, they can adjust audio source, video source and volume levels at the press of a button."

Audio is delivered to the customers via a set of EM Acoustics EMS Series loudspeakers. Each area contains four wall-mounted EMS-81 passive 8" x 1" fullrange enclosures and a pair of EMS-215 dual 15" subwoofers. To handle the occasional DJ, the upstairs bar contains a pair of larger EMS-121 12" x 1" passive fullrange enclosures. All loudspeakers are driven by Bittner Audio amplification, with all system crossovers, limiters and gain structures programmed into Audia.

Instigate looked to the cutting edge of video display technology for the main bar, and specified four flat-screen displays. To give maximum visual impact, a Relisys 42" plasma screen was installed, and then to cover other areas a 30" Sharp Aquos LCD screen and two 20" LCD screens were specified. "Each display can be individually controlled from Cue" says Wheeler, "allowing them to have any combination, such as MTV on two screens, a VHS-based advert system on one and people playing on a Playstation on another, all in the same bar".

Student's Union Events Manager Mark Austin says "This system is exactly what we needed to bring the venue bang up to date. It can do everything we need it to, and is capable of much more. Its user interface is simple (vital as many of our staff are temporary) which allows everyone to get to grips with it very quickly, and the audio and video quality is second to none. I can have DJ's running in here and get a clean, clear sound all night, every night, without having to worry."