Monmouthshire County Council assessed a number of other systems before arranging a demonstration of the SDC 3000 system with SIS and Sennheiser's John Willett. "In the end," said Phil Nicholes of SIS, "there were two deciding factors, clarity of sound and simplicity of use". The system supplied was an SDC 3000 with 57 delegate units and, as the installation is for permanent use, all wiring is concealed. In addition to the delegate mics, two Sennheiser evolution wireless systems also feed into the system for use in presentations. These are e312 lapel and e335 handheld systems, allowing presenters their preference.
An output from the SDC 3000 system feeds the public gallery PA, consisting of an APart MA 40 mixer/amp and APart Sdi 20 100V line loudspeakers. The SDC 3000 also feeds the Sennheiser infrared system, used for hearing impaired people and for Welsh language simultaneous interpretation. Channel 1 of the IR is fed directly from the SDC 3000 for hearing impaired people. A Sennheiser evolution wireless e335 is then used by a translator and fed into channel 2 of the IR system. When a question is tabled in Welsh it is translated into English for non-Welsh speaking delegates listening on headsets.
SIS also supplied an additional portable IR system for Monmouthshire County Council in a neat package using Sennheiser 1015-T IR and e345 evolution wireless systems, whereby the wireless receiver and IR transmitters are mounted together on a stand. "It's a great solution, you just place the stand with combined radio receiver and IR transmitters in a suitable position, plug-in and you're up and running", explains Nicholes.
The second system, supplied to Brecon Beacons National Park Authority HQ in Brecon is a similar design to the Monmouthshire system, but this time it was first driven by the need for a hearing impaired system. Induction loop was discounted because of its inherent compromise in confidentiality outside of the meeting room and interference caused by overspill from loops in adjacent rooms, whereas infrared provided a secure solution. It was then decided that meetings could be more comfortable and effective for everyone with distributed sound reinforcement with chair and delegate control. Again the Sennheiser SDC 3000 system was evaluated and chosen. At Brecon the system is portable, to allow for changes in room layout, and uses 19 delegate units with an evolution wireless e312 feeding in for presentations and an output to the Sennheiser IR for the hard of hearing on channel 1. Like the Monmouthshire system, a Welsh language translator then feeds in to channel 2 of the IR using an evolution wireless e335 system.
(Lee Baldock)
