Gretna, LA – July 2010… Encompassing most of the suburbs of greater New Orleans, the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court has original jurisdiction of all civil and criminal matters in Jefferson Parish, with the exception of certain juvenile matters. Located in the Thomas F. Donelon Building, the court recently underwent an extensive renovation of its audiovisual facilities. Among the numerous enhancements to the court’s AV infrastructure, the facility is now equipped with sixteen DM1624 Digital Automatic Matrix Mixers from Rio Rancho, NM-based Lectrosonics.
Metairie, LA-based Crescent Multimedia Solutions, a design/build firm that specializes in A/V courtroom technology, was contracted to handle the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court’s audiovisual overhaul. Cory Ancar, who in addition to being President and CEO of Crescent Multimedia Solutions, also serves as the company’s systems designer and project manager, met with the court’s management team to ascertain the types of facility enhancements they envisioned. He discussed the decision to implement sixteen Lectrosonics DM Series processors throughout the facility.
“There were two primary considerations that influenced our decision to deploy the Lectrosonics DM Series processors,” explained Ancar. “First, we needed an audio mixing system that could operate effectively in an unattended environment and, for this; the Lectrosonics DM processors are an ideal match. As there are no AV technicians on site at the court, this was a crucial consideration. Secondly, the ability to seamlessly interface the audio mixing system with the control system that would manage the entire setup was essential. As the plan called for a Crestron® control system in each of the 16 courtrooms, the DM1624’s ability to interface with and be governed by the Crestron controller made it the right tool for the job.”
In each of the Twenty-Fourth Judicial District Court’s sixteen courtrooms, the Lectrosonics DM1624 processor takes all audio input from the various microphones and outputs signals to the room’s four zones of ceiling speakers. Additionally, there are three laptop computer interfaces throughout each courtroom for easy integration with the house A/V system, as well as a DVD/VCR combo deck at the podium. These inputs also get routed through a switcher and into the DM processor’s auto mixer. In addition to the audio feeds for the various ceiling loudspeakers, each DM processor also provides a feed to a separate audio recording system for courtroom documentation purposes.
Ancar was particularly impressed with the DM1624’s configuration capabilities as well as its ability to interface with the Crestron control system. “We configured the DM processors with Lectrosonics’ very capable LecNet2™ software,” Ancar said. “This software, which runs on our notebook computers, enables us to address automixing, mix-minus auto zoning, teleconferencing, and other setups easily and effectively. This way, each room’s configuration gets saved not only to the individual processor, but to the computer as well—so each division has its own file that we save individually.”
“I’ve also been impressed with the DM1624’s ability to interact with the Crestron controller,” he continued. “The DM communicates with the Crestron system via RS-232, so the end user really has no interaction with the DM processor itself, and this minimizes the chances for something to be inadvertently changed. Every aspect of the overall AV system’s capabilities is accessed through the Crestron and, as a result, there’s one consistent interface for the entire AV system.”
Reflecting on the installation, Ancar reports the Lectrosonics DM processors have been bullet proof in their operation and that the client is very pleased with the resulting audio performance. “Our client is ecstatic over the quality of the audio system,” Ancar notes. “They are particularly pleased with the fact that they’ve encountered absolutely no audio issues such as feedback, nor have they required any adjustments since the system was set up. The Lectrosonics DM processors do their job very effectively.”
About the Lectrosonics DM Series Processors
The DM Series is a family of powerful digital audio processing, mixing, and routing systems. Their primary applications are sound reinforcement and conferencing in boardrooms, courtrooms, worship centers, distance learning systems, hotels, and other applications with multiple microphones and loudspeakers. Easily configurable using a computer system with the WIndows® 2000, XP or VistaTM operating systems, the DM design represents a milestone in DSP technology in its basic architecture and in its processing speed, efficiency, and flexibility. The DM1624’s basic architecture consists of 16 mic/line inputs and 24 outputs with a full DSP-based crosspoint matrix that enables every input to be routed to any or all outputs.
About Lectrosonics
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