Extron Audio in Practice

Description

This two-day course presents a logical, intuitive, and practical approach to sound system design and integration. It begins with a refresher course on audio fundamentals. Next, an overview of system design best practices will include loudspeaker selection and placement, amplifier matching, and system performance optimization with digital signal processing – DSP. At the end of this course, you will be able to assess the performance of your audio system design for acceptable speech intelligibility and music clarity.

Audience

This program is designed for technical individuals who want to grow of their knowledge in audio systems and strengthen their understanding of system design and integration in real-world scenarios. This includes AV System Design Engineers, Installers, and Junior AV Consultants.

Bring Your Own Laptop

Each student is required to bring a laptop for system design exercises, DSP configuration, and final system validation. Laptops used in this course must meet or exceed the following hardware and software requirements:

• Intel^® Core™2 Duo or equivalent processor
• Microsoft^® Windows^® 7, Windows 8 or 8.1
• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 and 4.0 Full
• A network connection with a data transfer rate of 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps/1000 Mbps recommended
• Adobe Reader
• DSP Configurator software - Ensure that you have the latest version of DSP Configurator software installed prior to attending this course. This software is available on the Extron Web site.

Content

Audio Principles

Most sound problems are the result of overlooking basic fundamentals. This refresher course covers essential audio concepts and core principles, and strengthens your understanding of audio terminology. By seeing how the theory is used, you will be able to more effectively put it into practice.

The Audio Chain

The key to understanding sound systems is to understand the signal chain. It is the most common denominator. This course is built around common components found in a typical sound system. After this course you will be able to:

• Explain the audio signal flow throughout the audio system
• Understand how audio components work and interface together
• Properly design an audio system where its components are used to their fullest potential

Designing Audio Systems in Typical AV Applications

This session includes project-based exercises where you walk through the functional scope of work for an application. Next, you will follow a step-by-step guided design session in order to complete the design. After completing this course you will learn:

• The Do's and the Don'ts in applying microphone techniques and how to address comb filtering
• System design and performance optimization using a DSP-based solution
• Fundamentals of loudspeaker selection and placement based on achieving acceptable speech intelligibility
• Design basics necessary to determine the target SPL, loudspeakers density, and power requirements

Practical Approach to Commissioning

In this session, you will use your laptop and Extron DSP Configurator software to set up the DSP configuration that is required for the project. With this practical exercise you will:

• Learn why proper gain structure is needed
• Apply the four essential steps to setting up proper gain structure for AV systems
• Use Extron Building Blocks to help minimize configuration time

This exercise concludes with validating your DSP configuration using the pre-installed system in the classroom. This will enable you to test or check your design and make final adjustments if necessary.

Instrumentation and Troubleshooting

This session focuses on many of the common audio problems in the field. It provides you with a “divide and conquer” approach to tackle problems like “Hum and Buzz,” and reveals practical tips for fixing acoustic feedback.

Digital Audio Networks

This session is designed to offer a comprehensive introduction to digital audio networks. It will dramatically shorten your learning curve for understanding the Dante digital audio network, how it is applied, and where it is deployed.