TONGANOXIE, KANSAS: Having long ago outgrown its original elementary school, which was erected in 1902, the town of Tonganoxie, Kansas is pleased to have a brand new state-of-the-art elementary school that, at 145,000-square feet, more than doubles the space available in the old building and makes Tonganoxie’s new school the largest elementary school in the state. And that’s a good thing, because Tonganoxie – a nearby suburb of Kansas City – is growing rapidly! But the new elementary school does much more than relieve classroom crowding. It provides teachers and students with cutting-edge technologies that improve learning outcomes. The building’s two gym/multipurpose rooms underscore the importance of physical health and exercise to mental performance, and the building’s two music rooms underscore the interrelationship between the arts and academics. For both types of facilities, the Kansas City office of Electronic Contracting Company (ECC) installed sound reinforcement systems centered on reliable, flexible Ashly Audio processing, amplification, and simple user control.
“Each gym and each music room had to be a completely independent system from the user’s point of view,” explained Kyle Robinson, lead installer on the project for ECC, “but from a design point of view, it made sense to combine the equipment for each gym/music room pair. We had to take care to be sure that all the spaces could perform simultaneously and independently, without any interference or interaction between them. Ashly made it easy to set that up, and Ashly’s reliability will give the school years of uninterrupted operation.”
Each gym/multipurpose room contains a rack with an Ashly ne24.24M Protea™ Matrix Processor configured for twelve inputs and four outputs. Inputs that stay with each gym include two wireless microphones, a selection of wired mics, and a CD/Aux/Digital Media player. Inputs that stay with each associated music room include independent wireless mics, wired mics, and a media player. Although all the inputs from one gym and one music room feed a single Ashly ne24.24M, Robinson configured it so that they remain completely separated within the internal routing structure. Outputs from each processor feed an Ashly ne4250.70 four-channel 250-Watt amplifier (one per rack), which in turn powers 70-volt Community V2-28WT loudspeakers.
“Despite the overlap in equipment, we were able to use Ashly RD-8C remote controls to give each gym sole control over its input volumes and output volume,” Robinson said. “The RD-8C controls the input level of each mic, the input level of the CD/Aux unit, and a level control for the master volume output. This gives them mixing capability when running multiple mics for performances or assemblies with multiple singers or speakers. It also gives them the ability to easily and quickly make adjustments as needed. Each music room uses an Ashly WR-1.5 Rear Panel Remote level control, which operates the master volume for the music space and allows for source selection. The RD-8C and WR-1.5 are both easy to setup and easy for the end user to operate. The RD-8C combines ease-of-use and the capability to set several individual levels when needed.”
Robinson was happy to report that Tonganoxie’s staff trained-in on the system without complication and that since the systems went in, everyone has been able to focus on educating Tonganoxie’s students using the transparent and ever-ready sound systems ECC installed.
ABOUT ASHLY AUDIO
Ashly Audio Inc. is recognized as a world leader in the design and manufacturing of high quality & high performance signal processing equipment and power amplification for use in the commercial sound contracting and professional audio markets. The 40-year old company is headquartered in Webster, New York U.S.A.
