NASHVILLE – The Ivy Center of Nashville turned to Dallas-based AVL provider Romeo Music for a new audio system. The new system includes an easy-to-use control system based on Allen & Heath’s AHM platform.
More details from Allen & Heath (www.allen-heath.com):
Romeo Music is an education-focused AVL provider based out of Dallas, Texas. They offer full service installations for school auditoriums, sports stadiums, E-Sports labs, Music Tech labs, and everything in-between. “What makes us unique is that we are a complete integrator,” noted Jody Underwood, Senior Account Manager at Romeo. “We go beyond simply shipping products to customers – we also offer on-site installation, training, and professional development programs for our clients.”
The team at Romeo was recently approached to assist with a new audio system at the Ivy Center of Nashville, a charitable foundation dedicated to empowering the community’s high school seniors through scholarships and development resources. “The organization holds events at their facility, and they also rent out the space quite a bit,” explained Underwood. “It’s a very large room with a lot of spoken word presentations, dance classes, aerobics, debutante balls, and other related events.”
In addition to distributing sound throughout the room, the Romeo team was tasked with designing a control interface that was easy to use for the facility’s staff – who are not trained to use professional audio equipment. “We wanted the staff to be able to easily turn wireless mics on and off and adjust volumes,” said Underwood. “That’s all they really needed – so giving them a full mixing console was overkill.”
Underwood recognized that Allen & Heath’s AHM platform would be an ideal solution for the Ivy Center, offering powerful processing and audio distribution with versatile and customizable control. “We have used other similar products in the past,” recalled Underwood. “But we knew that AHM was easier to get up and running and we had great support through their sales representatives.”
With the Ivy Center’s previous PA system, there had been issues with audio not being distributed properly throughout the room. “The biggest complaint was that people couldn’t hear in the back,” said Underwood. “We identified that the best solution would include multiple ceiling speakers to ensure that audio reaches the entire space.” The ceiling speakers are fed signal via the local outputs on an Allen & Heath AHM-16 processor.
To control the overall volume in the room, as well as the individual input sources, Romeo’s team put together a tailor-made mobile application through Allen & Heath’s free Custom Control Editor. Custom Control allows for installers to design apps using a simple drag-and-drop interface, giving the end users access to exactly the features they need.
“AHM’s software is so simple to use,” said Josh Cavanaugh, lead tech for the installation. “You don’t have to be an IT or Networking specialist to make all the equipment talk. It’s very user-friendly. If you know how to use any other system processor or Allen & Heath console, it’s pretty much a walk in the park.”
