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Sunningdale School, Sunderland. PA System and Background Music

In collaboration with Blaydon Communications, Penton UK provided a TERRACOM Audio over IP and Penton loudspeaker solution to Sunningdale School in Sunderland; a brand-new, specialist school for children with severe, profound, and multiple learning difficulties. Covering pupils from ages 2 through to 11, Sunningdale provide learning and support for the pupils themselves as well as parents, carers, and families.

Sunningdale required a comprehensive public address and integrated background music system, however balancing the complex requirements for this system with cost restrictions presented a challenge. We proposed a hybrid solution to overcome this, with the flexibility of a network-based system where needed coupled with cost-effective solutions in other areas. The Penton TERRACOM range of products provided the exceptional functionality of this system, with 22 fully IP addressable end points serving as the digital backbone combined with the power and clarity of Penton market-leading loudspeakers.

The use of a TERRACOM led system provided maximum usability and the best user experience for this client. We recommended the PPM-IT5 touch screen microphone to provide the main user interface for the paging and routing requirements, which utilises multiple page touch screens to allow multiple complex paging patterns to be achieved without over complicating the interaction needed by the user. This allows the client to page single zones, groups of zones and all call announcements as well as the potential to accommodate future changes with ease.
TERRACOM also allows for multiple other end points to be used throughout; the global media player, for example, was connected to a TERRA-IEXU to convert the analogue audio to a digital stream, which could then be easily routed to any loudspeaker zone. This also includes the facility for USB connectivity which, when combined with the built-in scheduling capabilities, makes implementing class change systems in the future easy for Sunningdale.
Eight of the smaller rooms within the school make use of TERRA-AMP units, which provide enough power to drive a couple of our Penton low impedance loudspeakers. These areas can be included or excluded from paging announcements and global music broadcasts. Areas such as general circulation corridors which required more loudspeakers were fitted with a TERRA-EX unit as a more cost-effective solution, to decode the digital audio streams and provide an analogue feed to the more traditional commercial 100v line amplifier.

This project really demonstrated the practical use of the TERRACOM hybrid system, which provided the perfect balance of flexibility and cost-effectiveness for the client. This solution is usable by the school from day one and will remain adaptable for years to come.