Univest Bank is a midsized, regional bank headquartered in Pennsylvania. The bank has seen a range of success in recent years, and its success has led to both a measured expansion of the territory it covers and the density of customers within that territory. As a part of this expansion plan Univest recently made the decisions to open a branch office in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
As with a number of their branches, the bank wished to have audio streaming throughout the day, at times providing traditional background music, at times working in tandem with the bank’s digital signage displays. Univest called on an electrical contractor nearby, Bergey’s Electric, to provide the system that they would need to pump audio into the new branch. Bergey’s Electric relied on AV Integration firm Communications Systems Incorporated (CSi), a nearby integrator in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to design and to help oversee the creation of the sound system for the bank’s use.
“To the electrical contractor, Bergey’s Electric, of Hatfield, Pennsylvania, the bank officials relayed their desire for a well-balanced sound system that would be easy for non-technical staff to control,” said Wayne Becker, vice president of business development at CSi. “Bergey’s Electric turned to us to design the system and to oversee the final connections, programming, and user training.”
Univest and Bergey’s Electric had several specifications necessary for the system to meet. the system had to provide distribution to several zoned areas, some of which required straight background music and some of which required multimedia support. The latter are primarily in the lobby and the waiting area.
“It had to be easy for the staff to assign sources to zones and to turn them up and down independently,” said Becker. “In terms of the design, the multimedia areas had to be well-separated from the other areas so that the digital signage could be supported without bleeding into the banking customer service area.”
To meet the requirements, CSi relied on an Ashly Audio Pema 8125 eight-channel amplifier with an integrated digital matrix processor, along with Ashly Audio’s WR-5 wall-mounted remote control and its iPad remote control app. Ashly Audio Inc. is a 40-year-old company recognized as a world leader in the design and manufacturing of high quality & high performance signal processing equipment and power amplification for use in the commercial sound contracting and professional audio markets.
Music and digital signage inputs feed the Ashly Pema 8125, which applies appropriate input equalization, delay and routing on the front end. Output from Pema’s Protea digital processor internally feeds its eight 125-watt amplifiers, which in turn feeds eight zones of TOA H2 and JBL 8138 loudspeakers. The company is using the Ashly technology to control sound in the branch, whether it be background noise or content from digital signage in certain areas.
“Univest is very happy with the way the new system sounds and operates,” said Becker. “They can use the Ashly WR-5 wall remote in a pinch, or they can use Ashly’s iPad Remote App for more in-depth control. Either way, its functionality is intuitive and easy for the bank staff to understand and operate. On our end, we’ve always had great results with Ashly – the gear is well priced, straightforward to configure, and backed by Ashly’s easy-to-reach support staff.”
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