The 33-storey Bangkok HQ of the TMB includes a 500-seat, multi-purpose auditorium on its seventh floor, is regularly used to host conferences, press events and presentations. Less frequently it is also a live music venue, prompting the installation of a more capable sound system by Sonos Libra.
Previously the Thai Military Bank, the TMB building is located in the Chatuchak district of the city. ‘The auditorium at TMB sees some very diverse use and it gets quite busy,’ says Sonos Libra Head Engineer, Alfonso Martin. ‘We knew from the start that the A/V system needed to be cutting edge, it needed to be scalable and it needed to be high quality. When we submitted a bid to upgrade the facility, we knew from the start it needed to be done with Dante.’
The installation is based around an Allen & Heath DM0 rack with new 64x64 Dante Cards clocked at 96kHz, Lab.gruppen D80 and D120 amplifiers, and six Xilica Rio R22-WP-X in-wall Dante I/O panels.
Martin believes his company won the bid in part because it’s use of Dante enables flexible and future-proof solutions. ‘It may seem a bit strange at first to think of a bank seeking out this level of audio capability, but banks are associated with having extremely impressive technology – not just related to their banking, but in all levels of their work,’ Martin says.
The bank required a highly flexible installation as the auditorium occasionally needs to reposition its equipment – and this needs to be accomplished with little effort. Further, the system needed to be capable of a quick upgrade if a demand for such a change arose. Specifically, Martin says, it needed to be able to accommodate additional remote I/O. The audio also needed to reach other areas of the building outside the auditorium – such as allowing announcements to take place in the lobby.
‘In addition to those needs the bank obviously wanted a system that had extremely high-quality sound,’ Martin says. ‘We needed to make sure it was ready for all types of use and that if a microphone needed to be added it could happen quickly and easily.’
By building out a Dante audio network, Martin and his team has ensured that the bank can swiftly and effectively alter the configuration of equipment by plugging into an available network port without the need for cumbersome or expensive cable runs. Patch panels can also be quickly set up, Martin said, providing even greater flexibility.
A Dante network also reduces the interoperability challenge thanks to the more than 2,000 products that are now Dante native. And, because the network reaches beyond the auditorium, the ability to add sound to other areas of the facility is quickly realised without additional cable pulls.
‘The sound has been improved significantly,’ Martin reports. ‘And it really is a system that solves all the problems. They can easily press a pre-programmed button to host an event. They can use a plug-and-play system to add more devices. It’s very much a thing of beauty to see a Dante system in use like this, and seeing the customer being so happy with the results.’
He expects further use of Dante as the facility hosts additional events.
More: www.audinate.com
