Ashly amps revamp county courthouse
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The professionals at local A/V integration firm Sound Specialty Company have been working their way through the Racine County Courthouse’s 12 courtrooms. In each, they have installed an Ashly ne8250 eight-channel 250W network amplifier to provide clean and reliable audio reinforcement. The most recent Ashly ne8250 to go in includes an optional Dante networking card to allow easy setup for court recordings.
“We’ve been working with the county for a long time, but it has only been in the last three years that we’ve undertaken work on the Racine County Courthouse courtrooms,” explains Jeff Saunders, design engineer at Sound Specialty Company. “The technology in the courtrooms was at least twenty years old, and it was high time for an upgrade. We’re currently on the seventh courtroom, and the recipe for each one has been similar. The goal is to give them a powerful, reliable system that’s easy to control and that will retain its performance long into the future.”
Each courtroom includes a microphone each for the judge and the witness and two microphones each for the defence and prosecutor’s tables. In addition, a custom input panel allows a microphone to be used for speech on the courtroom floor, such as for opening or closing arguments.
The court reporter controls a QSC Q-SYS Core 110f via a programmable touchscreen, which in turn feeds an Ashly network eight-channel ne8250 power amplifier, delivering 250W per channel (one per courtroom). At least three of its ne8250’s eight channels are used in each courtroom: one for a judge loudspeaker, one for a jury loudspeaker. In addition, several courtrooms had an additional loudspeaker for the gallery.
(Jim Evans)
