Pro-Motion Selects dbx ZonePro for Borders Books & Music

Sep 8, 2005 3:47 PM

The ZonePro products feature Advanced Feedback Suppression (AFS), autowarmth, auto gain control, compression, limiting, noise gating, and notch filtering.

Pro-Motion, an audio/video multimedia design and installation company, installed the dbx ZonePro audio systems controller at Borders Books & Music, one of the nation’s leading media retail chains. The ZonePro was chosen as the sole system to control background music, overhead paging, and music-on-hold for the stores’ telephone systems. Thus far, the ZonePro has been installed at four stores in the last four months: Timonium, Md.; Tualatin, Ore.; Middletown, N.Y.; and Charlotte, N.C. Pro-Motion will outfit additional stores with the ZonePro as the 1,200-store chain opens new locations.

“The dbx ZonePro has become our template for zone audio control, at the Borders stores, and every other installation environment for which it’s appropriate,” explains Lynn Matson, president and CEO of Pro-Motion, which in less than four years, has produced more than $30 million in revenues from its design/install work and as a distributor of systems components and products from its 65,000-square-foot headquarters and warehouse in Wixom, Mi. “The ZonePro is reliable, functional, and easy to operate and install. We do all the programming here at the facility and send it to the project site ready to install, which saves a substantial amount of time and effort.”

Pro-Motion, which has done audio/video design/install projects for TGI Fridays, Fossil, American Eagle Outfitters, Target, and Wal-Mart, has found in the ZonePro what Pro-Motion Chief Engineer Chris Hill describes as “our No. 1 audio solution for installed commercial systems, the basis for all of our zoned audio system designs, for all of the Borders stores going forward, and for every other zone-audio installation.” Hill points out several of the ZonePro’s many unique features as the reasons Pro-Motion and its client base increasingly rely on it for audio control. “We can write the program for the unit before we ship it to the job site, which assures consistency of sound and operation from store to store,” he remarks. “Also, that further assures that the user won’t have to access it, which further minimizes the potential for system failure. Still, the ZonePro is incredibly flexible, so when a store installation has special needs, it can handle that easily. And if there is ever any kind of problem with the unit, we’ve got all of the operational parameters on hand as an ‘as-built’ file that we email to dbx, which then programs a new unit to exactly those specifications and overnights the updated unit to our installers in the field for immediate replacement. The ZonePro is more than a piece of product—it’s an entire end-to-end solution that covers all the bases.”

Hill cites the ZonePro’s comprehensive capabilities, noting that its DSP power means a zoned system no longer needs outboard processing, such as EQ and compression, further simplifying both the system design and installation, and minimizing failure potential, while also dramatically increasing cost-effectiveness. “Not only do you not need outboard processors, but you also eliminate the need for the additional cabling, power supplies, and racking necessary to hold it and run it,” he says. “There is nothing else on the market that even comes close to what the ZonePro can do.”

For more information about dbx, visit www.dbxpro.com.