Case Studies

RAF PA

by Mark Rowe

RAF High Wycombe is an Royal Air Force base and headquarters for Air Command and European Air Group. The site required a replacement site-wide public address (PA) system. The installers NG Bailey called on the audio-visual and PA product company CIE-Group to specify a replacement PA using an audio-over-IP network.

CIE-Group provided an on-site consultation – site survey, technical output specification and system design. The firm specified a system based around their new 2N NetSpeaker – a range of IP-addressable audio end-points, controlled from a central management server system and allowing audio signal distribution via a secure local area network (LAN).

That product the makers add can provide site-wide, configurable communication across a decentralised system to loudspeakers and zones from the desktop. Audio-over-IP (internet protocol) can deliver public address (voice and music) over standard network infrastructures (LAN, WAN, internet), to zones, multiple buildings or even multiple sites via Cat5e/6/7 cable (or web) rather than traditional audio cable (such 100v line or low impedance).

Julian Salter was part of the CIE specification team on the High Wycombe project. He says: “The resulting system features more than 160 bespoke vandal-proof loudspeakers with integrated NetSpeaker end-points to stream live and recorded paging announcements to any or all zones throughout the Air Force base.

“We also designed and built five additional 100v line audio racks as part of the system, each of which includes its own NetSpeaker IP Decoder Interface. These 100v line amplifier racks, therefore, become IP-addressable zones in themselves, allowing existing legacy 100v speaker lines already installed throughout the air base to be integrated into the overall audio-over-IP distribution system.”

The five IP-connected racks are placed in strategic zones throughout the RAF base in the historically-named Spitfire, Jaguar, Typhoon and Hurricane Buildings, connecting to their existing legacy loudspeaker lines and providing PA coverage to the various buildings.

Though there are further plans for expansion of the site – and, therefore, the system – all message broadcasting and zone control for the entire IP Public Address System is handled from one paging console. The 2N NetMic is an Paging Microphone and Control Console which allows live and recorded messages and tones to be broadcast over the IP network, while allowing zone control over groups or IP audio end points.

CIE sales director Kevin Sherwood, who led the project, says use of audio-over-IP via Ethernet cable provided the best option for this large system. He says: “Installation of large copper networks for 100v line systems would never have been allowed due to the limited access to this highly secure site. The RAF air base already had an existing unutilised data and fibre infrastructure allowing the installer to simply add new switches and end-of-line Cat6 cables to connect the NetSpeaker IP end points. Links between sites were designed to use BT ADSL Lines which are secure from the public network, allowing significant cost savings by eliminating the requirement to install a new copper network or pull new cables between buildings.”

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