Voiume 39 Number 4 April 26, 199: AIRLINE TRAINING I CENTER mock ups of planes and airport areas. Cameras in the galley, mics in the ticket counters and remote operation of the audio- visual systems were all carefully installed. 38 Racks, Part Three The enclosure is the most apparent aspect of your installation. A comprehensive primer on rack enclosures, including ratings, con- struction materials, ergonomics, and tools for designing your racks. 44 Visiting CES CONFERENCE CENTER LINK The Consumer Electronics Show offers new formats, new technologies and new applica- When GRP Records consolidated its tions for products that might serve the com- mercial field. Our roving reporter gives a operations, the existing recording subjective view of CFS. 17 studio was linked to a new confer- The ADA And What It Says The Americans With Disabilities Act has ence center and to the individual ex- prompted facility changes. What exactly does the act say? 14 ecutives’ offices. And the sound had What’s New- In Magnetic to be consistent with the executives’ Structures More information on parts for speakers, in home listening room. 31 Mike Blasco’s periodic series - “Back to Basics.” This month: New Ideas. 59 L MULTI-PURPOSE HALL Despite near-perfect acoustics, a sound system was needed to enhance the flexibility of Boston Symphony Hall -for financial and for artistic reasons. Andrews Audio and Evening Audio installed a system that would foster better quality for TV and for guest artists without ruining the Orchestra performances.22 Networking the Conference Center GRP Records Can Access From Any Office BY JEFF ADER RP records recently cele- could do this the right way, the man Engineering for the past 10 years. brated its 10th anniversary as responsible for “The Review Room” He maintains numerous contacts G a record company and consol- and Larry Rosen’s listening room, with the top people in the business. idated its operation into one building Harry Hirsch. This enables him to put together the in New York City. Harry Hirsch and his partner best team of people for such an impor- The company’s recording studio, Jerome Bunke are the owners of Digi- tant job as this. called “The Review Room,” was an tal House, the leading CD and cassette early installation (on the 12th floor) production service. Their services in- THE TEAM instituted well before the consolidation clude tape preparation, mastering, rep Harry has a real knack for finding phase. The task faced by the contrac- lication and duplication. Digital House the right people in a given situation. tor was to integrate the existing re- is also regarded as the foremost de- This proved to be the case for this cording studio into a network that project, too. He enlisted the talents of would link it to the new “media/con- There had to be Greg Hanks for selection and installa- ference center” and to the top execu- tion of the computer network that in- tives’ offices on the 10th floor. These a consistency terfaces the studio, conference room key people in the company would then of sound between and executive offices. be able to access any of these rooms the “media room," Greg Hanks is the founder and and utilize or monitor them. president of New York Technical Sup Finally, there had to be a consis- the “review room” port, Ltd. He specializes in the design, tency of sound between the “media and the private installation and repair of audio equip room,” the “review room” and the pri- listening room. ment and in this case: Computer Aided vate listening room in Larry Rosen’s Services, Ergonomic Optimization; home. (Mr. Rosen is the “R” in GRP signer and printer of customized pack- Mechanical, Enclosure and Panel de- records. His partner is Dave Grusin. ages for the specific needs of CD and sign; Installation and wiring design; Together they have played on, engi- cassette releases. Their motto is “for Autocad operation. neered and/or produced countless al- those who hear the difference.” He was previously the Chief Engi- bums and productions for the top jazz But this is only one area in which neer at Wally Heider Recording Stu- artists of the world.) Harry shines. He is also a musician, an dios in Hollywood, Calif. and Techni- When the decision to consolidate award winning audio engineer, record- cal Director at Audiotechniques Inc. in was made they had to find the right ing studio owner, audio consultant and New York. He founded New York person to handle these diverse but studio designer, a founding member of Technical Support, Ltd. in 1982. critically important rooms. There was SPARS, the founder of the Center for Harry told Greg that he needed cus- really only one person for them who the Media Arts School of Audio Arts tom built remote controlled equipment and a member of the New York chap that could be run from the conference JeffAder is a writer and consultant in the ter of NARAS. He has been on the table. The system that Greg proposed sound and communications industry. Grammy Nominating Committee for was a Crestron touch-controlled panel April 1993 31 composed of a Crestron Crestnet 2 Multipurpose Controller; an Autonet Audio-Video/Data Crosspoint Matrix; and a PC. The Crestnet runs the Crosspoint controller, and the PC runs the Crest- Greg designed the Thee Review conference room to Roomat GRP. be a “server hub” l A universal copy center (any for- The next person Harry enlisted for with the work mat from any format). the “team” was Victor Schwartz, archi- stations being the l Accessibility from any executive’s tect. Construction of the “Media/Con- executives’ offices. office via remote. ference Room” had some very specific Greg designed the conference room problems to address including tie lines net through a serial interface. to be a 'server hub” with the work sta- to four executive offices and the “Re- The system has a threefold function: tions being the executives’ offices. By view Room” (recording studio). The l Boardroom presentations and in- utilizing the Crestron in this manner, first thing was its location in the cen- ternational video teleconferencing. it became destination oriented. There ter of the floor with offices all around are also tie lines to the recording stu- it. This was solved in a large part by dio- “The Review Room.” Originally putting corridors and the reception a relay system was proposed but the area in the adjacent spaces. The next AMX/Crestron proved to be vastly factor to consider was the sound iso- superior. Within these pages, you can lation of the room itself, especially in see a photo of the Conference Room, relation to the floors above and below and a list of equipment provided by where other tenants have occupancy Mark Wexler, Senior Vice President of and would be concerned with unac- -me strong Marketing and Promotion at GRP. Silent J PivoteUi Swivel Supports may be designed to look sleek and stylish. But there’s a lot of muscle behind them. For openers, their solid steel construction and durable nylon finish combine to make them virtually indestructible in normal use. Their powerful rubber-lined clamping arms securely hold cabinets up to 47” wide and weighing as much as 176 pounds. And they’re backed by a five-year parts and labor guarantee. The best in the business. Little wonder more builders, architects and engineers are specifying Pivotelli Supports for commercial and industrial applications every day. Lxvinon of laml Fmdluk, hc, ~&lmdhg~~o~ak~Sup~r~~Rok. PivoteUiRJSA, 25 Commercial St. PO. Box 560, Medford, hlA 02155 1-800-548-5040 (In MA: 617-391-4097) Fax: 617-391-7819 Circle 285 on Reader Response Card 32 Sound & Communications Chatterbox. @duck Voiceh’nk recod@zyhk communicutions system-s can speak dwnesfor any type of business. A diagram of the Offer your customers the last word destination oriented in “real voice” automated messaging: conference room. I ’ A I B VoiceLink from Wheelock. These uniquely versatile, microprocessor- based systems can store hundreds of The solution to this problem was Harry Hirsch and Larry Rosen we find spoken messages and/or tones, and using a combination of sheetrock the proliferation of High Definition TV deliver them instantly, in any language. (three layers), plywood (two layers) and film projects that GRP is becom- VoiceLink is flexible. Integrate it and sheets of fiberglass pucks to a ing involved with and the need for tele- with any system or interface it with thickness of five inches, to build up conferencing with Matsushita (Japan), computers or control panels. Assign the floor. which now owns GRP. One such priority levels to ensure that the most This made for a very resilient floor, project is a forthcoming Dave Grusin important messages are broadcast first, and venting it properly was of para- album entitled “A Homage to Duke” and broadcast your message through mount importance. It had to “breathe” that will have a High Definition Video as many as 4 audio channels to inform properly and flex. The finishing of it separate audiences simultaneously. VoiceLink is expandable. Both “THE REVIEW ROOM” the DV-100 and DV-200 Series come The ceiling height EQUIPMENT LIST with a 256-message capability built in, is approximately and hundreds of additional messages NEVE 8058 MK II Console can be programmed into either series 9 feet and the STUDER A-80 MK II Multi Track (24) via RN32 or RS-485 communications wall on one side STUDER A-80 %” 2 Track ports. OTARI MTR-10 4 Track VoiceLink is “personal.” The of the room acts SONY 1830 Digital Processor wording and expression of each as a diaphragm to PYGMY AD-l Analog to Digital message can be tailored to suit specific absorb sound.