IP-based Audio for Shopping Mall

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A large Colombo shopping mall in Lisbon has installed an audio over IP zoned audio solution from Barix AG, a provider of IP-based audio, intercom, control and monitoring, together with Acutron, a software provider.
 
Colombo, one of the largest shopping malls in Europe, now uses a point-to-multipoint solution to deliver voice, audio and control signs to more than 30 locations around the mall.
 
The solution features Instreamer 100 encoding and Exstreamer 100 decoding devices for voice and audio distribution, as well as Barionet and IO12 devices for control and system monitoring. The entire system is controlled using Acutron software for signal distribution to any zone from the central server and local operator terminals.
 
“We were required to design and install a system that does not require a great deal of cabling and infrastructure inside the building,” said Antonio J. de Oliveira, Co-Founder of Acutron. “Using limited network connections, the Acutron team established IP links to several operator terminals, each of which communicate with a certain number of Barix Exstreamers. We then connected more than 30 Exstreamers and their associated amplifiers back to a central technical room. The Acutron software and Barix hardware together act as a distributed switcher, routing live pages from a microphone or audio programs from a Barix Instreamer to single or multiple zones.”
 
Acutron uses several premium-quality audio sources for distribution across the network, including Barix Instreamers to encode audio from CD players into MP3 and Internet audio sources including “Barix Radio”, Barix’s own online radio station. Barix Exstreamers decode the audio for local playback over loudspeakers at each zone. While the end-to-end solution is automated, priority functionality in the Barix Exstreamer allows operators to make live pages and security announcements from specific terminals as needed.