A limited-access corporate mission-critical centre for a global information security company has recently opened on the US West Coast. With its audiovisual systems at the heart of its technical operation, the Security Operations Centre (SOC) is in operation around the clock 365 days a year, and stores sensitive data for some of the company’s largest clients.

Part of the A/V design provided by Delta A/V Systems is Powersoft Ottocanali 1204 amplification, which provides power to a 5.1-channel surround system in the SOC, plus a stereo loudspeaker pair in an adjacent conference room.

In the SOC, the five main speakers are positioned left, right and below the centre of the video wall, which comprises twelve 55-inch displays. The surround speakers are hung on either side of the conference room windows, which overlook the SOC. A stereo pair of speakers is located to the left and right of the main 80-inch video display in the conference room.

‘The bottom line was that I had one rack space and I needed eight channels of amplification, so the Ottocanali was absolutely perfect,’ explains Delta senior design consultant, David R Garlett. ‘More importantly, my installers really, really like how the amplifier is laid out. When the guys in the field take the time to even comment about what I’m specifying, that means a lot

‘It is the single most expensive rack that we’ve ever assembled. The workflow in that room is epic.’

Combining AMX and QSC Audio control and routing with Marantz audio processing, the A/V rack enables ten sources – eight workstations plus a cable HDTV feed and a conference room A/V input – to be switched to any display or any combination of displays in the facility. The SOC video wall offers a choice of viewing modes, from a single large image, with smaller independent images to each side, to a 10 x 12 display. The video and audio input sources and video wall layout modes are controlled from color touch panels in the SOC, conference room and the manager’s office.

Garlett believes that Powersoft’s products typically outperform their published specification. ‘Everybody’s spec sheet is kind of subjective,’ he comments. ‘But what I’m finding that is very refreshing is that, if anything, Powersoft’s are understated, and Powersoft amps definitely perform better than the competition. Yes, there are cheaper amplifiers out there – but they’re cheaper amplifiers!’

Delta AV is a Portland-based, privately held, audiovisual systems integration firm that has been providing design, engineering, sales, installation, service, custom programming and documentation of high-tech audio/video and control systems since 1996.

More: www.powersoft-audio.com