User manual ELECTRO-VOICE BACKGROUND MUSIC SPEAKER SE

[. . . ] Do pages originate from a single location, or from multiple locations?Must the system be tied into the customer's telephone network?Should the system be divided into multiple zones with separate volume controls? [. . . ] Success at this stage depends experience and product knowledge. To avoid ambiguity and confusion at the installation stage, the specification needs to be as explicit as possible. Of course, it should enumerate all of the equipment proposed to do the job, and should include both a block diagram and an accurate floor plan with annotations regarding construction. In addition, it should provide details such as local volume control locations and height, the desired location for amp racks, and even names of the employees who are expected to use the system. To forestall disputes and clarify responsibility if changes are required during or after installation, the customer should be asked to sign a written agreement governing the specification. Many contracting companies simply communicate the sales engineer's design directly to their installation department, who are charged with putting the system in and making it work. There are potential problems with this approach. For example, the salesman's natural tendency is to overdesign and oversell when he can. If the client is amenable, the result can be an excessively complicated (and problematic) system. Moreover, it is easy to make mistakes in the flush of a sale, and these may be compounded when the system goes in. Electro-Voice Installed Sound Technical Guide ©2002 Telex Communications, Inc. Speaker Systems for Background Music and Paging page 3 To address such pitfalls, it makes good sense to have each proposal reviewed by a second engineering employee whose approval should be required before the specification goes to installation. At this stage, design details can be finetuned and potential problems can be addressed to assure that the design is feasible, efficient and free of unnecessary redundancy. Selecting and Positioning Loudspeakers In the traditional approach to overhead-distributed systems, loudspeakers are located in a grid arrangement whose dimensions are dictated by the room height and the directivity of the speaker elements. Two basic placement patterns prevail: square spacing, and hexagonal (or crisscross) spacing. In addition to the spacing pattern, the designer must choose between three density types, designated respectively as edge-to-edge, minimum overlap and center-to-center. The greater the overlap, the more uniform the coverage-- and the higher the cost. Budgetary constraints tend to favor sacrificing density, so the optimum center-to-center configuration is, in practice, the least common of the three. Ceiling Speaker Size System designers usually specify 8-inch cone loudspeakers for distributed overhead systems, at least in part because they represent the traditional choice. In many cases, however, you can achieve equal or better results--at a significant savings--by using 4-inch elements. [. . . ] Otherwise, you may end up with a real headache-- like having the emergency room announcements directed to the pediatric ward Finally, it is vitally important to be sure that you know who in the client's company is authorized to make decisions when questions arise on the job site. If the building manager tells your installers to put the amp racks in the basement you don't want the owners calling you and insisting that they should have been in the second floor office Read more about MA/MR Series amplifiers: MA-1005B MA-355B MA-605B MR-355C receiver Standardizing for Profitability One of the best strategies that we can recommend for success in contracting is to standardize your operations wherever possible. Settle on a few basic system designs that can be modified to cover a wide variety of circumstances and then educate your sales staff about them. [. . . ]