Installation Profile: Legislative Sound

Nov 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Garret Maki and Rodrigo Ordoñez

Inside the U.S. Senate Chamber’s digital audio upgrade.

UPGRADE ACCOMPLISHED

The new Senate Chamber audio system has successfully replaced the high-quality and extremely reliable system installed almost 13 years ago. Although the requirements were demanding, the installation, testing, and commissioning were completed on time during scheduled congressional breaks, and they caused no system downtime. The additional monitoring functionality has already paid dividends by allowing the maintenance staff to identify any problems prior to use. The flexibility of a network and DSP-based system has allowed for system reconfiguration, updates, and adjustments to be performed post-installation as required without any interruptions in use, which is an absolute requirement for this system.

There were many key people involved in this project — including Rich Zwiebel, Deb Britton, Glenn Musser, and Ray Rayburn from K2 Audio; Gain Foster from General Communications; Bob Swanner and David Bass at the Senate Recording Studio; and Kevin Gross, Bill Lowe, and the entire Peak Audio engineering team — without whom the success of this project would not have been possible.

Garret Maki and Rodrigo Ordoñez are consultants at K2 Audio in Boulder, Colo. Maki was lead designer of the sound system and specializes in acoustics and mechanical design for integration. Ordoñez specializes in network design and custom programming for audio systems. He designed the network monitoring system currently in use at the Senate Chamber.