Powersoft Ottocanali power amplification systems were chosen to manage the zoning and room audio systems. The control of the power platforms is handled by Powersoft’s Armonía software, which is used not only for the system design and setup, but also provides simple control screens and can integrate with controllers from AMX and Crestron, for example, to make local use as easy as possible for non-technical operators. Different, password-protected views can be configured for different operators to manage specified zones and volume control.
For the two 16-seat conference rooms and terrace, AudioVision specified Powersoft Duecanali 804 devices. The conference rooms can be used individually or combined into one 40-seat space, and the Duecanali models make that easily possible, additionally delivering outstandingly low power consumption and thermal dissipation as well as connecting to the backbone of the audio distribution system. Projection facilities can be linked directly to laptops and tablets via Bluetooth.
Overall, the installation took nearly four months to complete, taking place as the hotel building work was being finished.
With varied and sophisticated objectives, the hotel needed the AV system to cover all areas of the hotel including conference facilities and a 70-seat theatre, with priority for EVAC announcements and both local and remote control of the zones. Though the best quality sound system was a must, the hotel’s prime objective was for it to be simple to use and reliable.
Powersoft began working with the hotel before building was started and although the initial specification was settled early on, there were inevitable modifications along the way. Fortunately, the Ottocanali range is well suited to system design changes on the fly.
The hotel doesn’t have its own sound engineers, but their IT staff are totally happy with the control systems that were put in place for them. The team set up the Operator view to a basic level (volumes for zones and sources) but can easily configure the operator panels at any time to have additional functionality for technical staff.
With 80 loudspeaker connections, there could have been significant fault-finding and measurement time, but Powersoft’s Live Impedance curve, an integral part of the Armonia software, made loudspeaker supervision easier and gave the operators more confidence. The team also added a backup priority signal for any situation.
The Powersoft products at Nyota fulfilled a number of detailed requirements to great effect.
The first request was to properly cover all the areas for music and messages and for some zones to also have the possibility to play music from a local source as well as centralised playback. EVAC messages were to have the highest priority, and they also requested the ability to make announcements to different individual zones or all together. The conference rooms, named Blue and Moon, were to have their own independent sound systems which could be combined when the rooms were merged into one larger room. The system had to be bespoke, easy to use and reliable.
The Ottocanali 4k4 models were specified by AudioVision since they provided not only the ability to mix low and high impedance loudspeaker systems (over 80 loudspeakers are in use in the Nyota Hotel), but full switched-mode PSU redundancy, assignable signal priorities for emergency messaging, digital signal processing allowing full equalisation of all loudspeakers and a programmable matrix, all inside a radically space-saving and low power-consuming 2U of rack height for eight channels of amplification and processing. Six of the channels were configured for low-impedance loudspeakers with the remaining two channels used for 100V line feeds.
The hotel has been running the system since the beginning of the summer season and they haven’t called for assistance once – no news is good news in this situation!
