Today, China is in the midst of constructing a huge high speed rail (HSR) network, embracing a distance of 120,000km in total by the year 2020, at an aggregated investment of RMB 5 trillion (US$ 732 billion). And YangQuan forms an important part of that network.
Situated on the high-speed line between ShiJiaZhuang and TaiYuan, YangQuan North train station has already been equipped with China's first Q-Sys fully-integrated digital audio platform within a transportation hub. This digital audio networking system boasts high-speed characteristics of its own, providing all the audio routing, processing, control and monitoring necessary for any facility while maintaining pristine audio quality, and a high speech transmission index (STI).
The contract for public address and fire alarm broadcast in the station went out to tender in May last year - with PCI competing with a number of market leaders in public address and voice evacuation - both on an international and local basis.
PCI were thus awarded the contract by Easyway, who are responsible for many of China's high-speed train projects, incorporating elements such as ticketing systems, service systems, gate systems - as well as the PA.
They set up their own digital platform through which all system applications could interface, allowing control of each dedicated system.
"The ease with which Q-Sys communicated with this protocol was a big selling point in its favour," said PCI technical director, Liu Shaowei. "Q-Sys was installed and tested in half a day, including field adjustment. It was simple to install and powerful and easy to use."
(Jim Evans)
