Towson University’s New Ballroom Maximizes Control Over
Disributed Audio
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Towson University’s new West Village Commons building features a ballroom outfitted with a distributed audio system comprising
150 ISP Technologies HDDS CS 650p speakers under the control of three HDDS Master Control Modules.
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Towson University, located eight
miles north of Baltimore, MD, cut
the ribbon in September on its brand
new West Village precinct, a complex of
student housing and other amenities. The
new precinct includes a student services
facility, West Village Commons, a $31.5
million, 85,000-square-foot, four-story,
mixed-use building that includes a multipurpose
ballroom with an ISP Technologies
distributed audio system installed by Visual
Sound of Arbutus, MD.
According to Andy Philip, senior systems
engineer/programmer with Visual Sound,
the decision to install ISP (Intelligent
Signal Processing) Technologies equipment
was very much driven by the client. “Frank
Rankin, who is with Towson University,
did the design and specification for the
most part, and had his heart set on the ISP
system,” he reported.
As it turns out, Rankin, production
manager, event and conference services,
technical operations for the university, has
some history with ISP Technologies and a
good working relationship with company
co-founder James “Buck” Waller. “I’ve been
a supporter of ISP for quite some
time,” Rankin said, speaking
during the final stages of the
install. “I’ve had ISP systems
for years here on campus. I
also bought an ISP line array
system for use in the stadium to
pump up the volume a little bit.”
Towson has even hosted demos,
Rankin revealed, including one
for the Naval Academy, who
subsequently installed an ISP
line array system.
The ballroom complex in
the West Village Commons
building can be divided into
three identically sized spaces or
a combination of those spaces.
According to Philip, each room
is approximately 80 feet by 40
feet, with 14-foot ceilings.
The distributed audio system
includes 150 ISP Technologies
HDDS CS 650p speakers under
the control of three HDDS
Master Control Modules. ISP’s
High Definition Distributed
System (HDDS) eschews
more typical distributed audio
topologies, such as 70V transformers and
DSP control. Instead, the CS 650, a 6.5-inch
ceiling speaker, features an internal 30-watt
D-CAT (ISP Technologies’ patented Dynamic
Current Amplifier Technology) power amplifier,
and also offers equalization capabilities. The HDDS Master Control
Module simply distributes low level AC current to power each ceiling
speaker’s amplifier, along with
the balanced audio signals, over
Cat-5 cable. Level control of
up to six zones is provided via
voltage-controlled amplifiers.
“Every speaker is three-way
powered; audio and power go
up Cat-5,” noted Rankin. “Why
hasn’t anybody thought of this
before?”
There are 50 CS 650 speakers
in each room. “I have my A,
B, and C ballrooms,” Rankin
explained. “Each ballroom has its
own six-channel controller and
I have each room divided into
six zones. So I can control the
volume anywhere in the room.”
Philip added, “I put the first
two rows on separate zones
so that he can drop it down by,
say, nine dB on the first row
and maybe six dB on the second
row. The next eight rows are on
the last four zones, two rows of
speakers per zone.”
He continued, “There are
two air-walls that can break
it up into three rooms. Frank’s
got four presets he can choose
from. Preset one is the three
separate rooms; preset two
is A and B combined, with C
separate; the third is B and C,
with A separate; and the last
preset is all of them combined.”
TOA 9000M2 mixers are
additionally available in the
rooms. “There are three wired mic
inputs and two Shure wireless
mics for each room,” said Philip.
The rooms also include Eiki EIPHDT30
single-chip DLP projectors.
As the completion date neared, Rankin
enthused, “The control is going to be phenomenal.”
Steve Harvey (psnpost@nbmedia.com) has been west coast
editor for Pro Sound News since 2000 and also contributes
to TV Technology and Pro Audio Review. He has 30 years of hands-on experience
with a wide range of audio production technologies.