09/03/2014
Washington family ranch extends campus reach with Barix IP
Zurich, Switzerland
Enter Barix courtesy of Stricklin, who also uses Barix solutions at Minnesota Public Radio. The complete solution gives Pratt and his staff a compact, easy-to-use master paging station in the main office that connects over the network to playout points in high-traffic locations. Pages are streamed live to Barix IP audio decoders at these locations, which prepare and deliver the messages over loudspeakers.
The result is clear messages for guests and staff in four dormitories, the main activity center, campus store, snack bar, dining hall, kitchen and main reception building. Pratt notes this is especially important in the event of a dangerous weather or a security situation, given the camp’s rural location.
“The intelligibility is exceptional and all our speakers are firing at the same time," said Pratt. “We’re confident that wherever guests are standing that they will clearly hear the announcements, instead of trying to translate the messages."
In addition to quality, Pratt cites low cost and simplicity as major benefits of the Barix IP Paging solution. “This operates like a set it and forget it system, and I’m excited that it requires minimal management," said Pratt. “We believe it will be the kind of system where we train people to use it at the beginning of the summer, and that’s it. The low cost of the system makes it seem as though we will absolutely get our money’s worth."
The complete Barix IP Paging solution installed at Washington Family Ranch includes an Annuncicom PS1 master paging station, and Barix Exstreamer 205 IP audio decoders at playout points — the latter of which include built-in amplifiers to reduce costs and infrastructure. Looking forward, Pratt expects to take advantage of Barix scalability by adding more playout points via additional Exstreamers, and exploring multicast delivery — a Barix specialty — to minimize network bandwidth.