The 2013 InAVation award for Most InAVative Transport and Communication Facility was won by distributor Prase Engineering. The company worked with integrator Almaviva to deliver an audio installation that combined intelligibility and reliability, while remaining sensitive to the stunning architectural features of a Rome railway station.
When the group responsible for managing the Italian railway network wanted to restore and modernise one of the county’s largest railway stations it placed great importance on delivering clear announcements to its passengers.
RFI Group and Grandi Stazioni, the company responsible for upgrading and managing a number of Italy’s railway stations, had to upgrade Rome’s Tiburtina station to accommodate an increase in passengers brought by new high velocity railway lines.
Italian distributor, Prase Engineering and system integrator, Almaviva were drafted in to address some tough audio challenges and deliver a system that would provide clear, intelligible messages.
Large coverage areas caused intelligibility issues and posed cable length problems. Also, with the regular arrival and departure of trains background noise levels changed drastically and quickly.
The high voltage lines for the trains and cable lengths also caused problems with electrical induction in audio cables.
Finally, the station managers were restoring the station to a high level and did not want an obvious audio installation. They required a discreet or invisible installation. Therefore large areas needed audio coverage with very few installation points.
RFI Group also stressed the importance of reliability in a station that is active almost 24 hours a day.
Find out how Prase and Almaviva responded to the challenges in
InAVate ActiveTech Spec
Apart loudspeakers, input adapters
APW racks
Duran Audio Axys loudspeaker arrays
Biamp AudiaFusion amplifiers, AudiaFlex matrixes, paging stations
Furman power conditioner
HP Ethernet switches
INOUT speakers, media server, KVM
Jampel serial server
SoundTube in-ceiling speakers
Tannoy loudspeakers and ceiling speakers