PHILADELPHIA, PA, FEBRUARY 12, 2009—University of the Sciences in Philadelphia recently outfitted its Athletic/Recreation Center (ARC) with an Aviom Pro64® digital snake along with Community speakers. Making the decision to upgrade to Aviom's cost-effective Pro64 gear was an easy one for the University staff, since the rental fees for a good sound system throughout the year had become expensive, as well as time consuming. 
"The existing sound system was substandard,” says Clear Sound President Chris Dietze, the system integrator who worked on the project. "It didn't deliver any intelligibility or reach powerful enough levels to make it over the screaming fans at various events such as indoor commencements, freshman orientations and sporting activities."
The University was looking to design and build a retrofit sound system for the ARC that would provide clear audio and be adaptable to the variety of events that the space hosts. After Clear Sound, Inc., found out that the University was spending close to four hours setting up a system that it rented for each event, Clear Sound suggested the Aviom gear to the school. Now, with the ease of setup that the Pro64 system provides, it takes the University staff ten minutes to roll out the rack and plug it in. "The Aviom system pays for itself," says William Horton, audio video technician at University of the Sciences. "Now it's a one person job; no rentals or preplanning. We just roll it out and choose our coverage."
The ARC is equipped with a new Yamaha LS9 console which was rack-mounted and fitted with an Aviom 6416Y2 A-Net® Interface Card that connects to Aviom 6416i and 6416o modules mounted in the rack room. Since the console is on a movable cart, the system can be adapted to meet the specific needs of each function hosted in the space.
One of the challenges this type of installation presented, besides a tight budget, was the limited cable path from one end of the large gymnasium to the other, and it was this obstacle that made Aviom particularly suited for the project. With only one three-quarter inch conduit path to cover 300 feet, it was much simpler to pull a couple of pieces of Cat-5e cable utilized by the Aviom system than to use conventional cabling since the conduit was too small to pull 18 or more XLR cables. The Aviom system allowed the school to run two Cat-5e cables over 170 feet to reach the room where the amplifiers were housed.
"The Aviom equipment was the obvious choice for this project," Dietze continues. "University of the Sciences in Philadelphia wished to control events from the far end of the gymnasium and the only cable path was the one piece of three-quarter inch conduit, which could only accommodate a couple of pieces of Cat-5 cable. The installation couldn't have been done with copper snakes, so we installed new jacks at the stage end, ran them to Yamaha mic preamps then to a Pro64 input module that used Aviom's A-Net protocol to send all the signals to the LS9 at the other end of the room. Return signals for the amps are sent from the LS9 to the control room via the Pro64 system."
Aviom pioneered personal mixing with its Pro16® Monitor Mixing System and continues to break new ground with the revolutionary Pro64® Series of audio networking products. With tens of thousands of products in the field today, Aviom has set the standard for high performance, scalable digital solutions. All Aviom systems harness the power of A-Net®, Aviom's innovative digital audio technology that simplifies system design while enhancing flexibility and fidelity. All Aviom products are designed, tested, and manufactured in the USA.