QSC Delivers Wide-Area Audio Distribution to Santiago International Airport

With over 20 million passengers flying through each year, the Santiago International Airport in Chile is one of the busiest airports in Latin America. With a major renovation and expansion in the works, the AV team chose QSC and the Q-SYS Ecosystem of processors, loudspeakers and amplifiers to deliver wide-area audio and paging distribution throughout the facility.

A redundant pair of Q-SYS Core 510i Integrated Core handles the AV&C processing throughout the airport. Should the primary Core enter a fault state, the secondary Core assumes full audio streaming and control communication with connected Q-SYS peripherals and third-party devices. This prevents any unwanted interruptions to audio, video or control that are critical to day-to-day operations.

Q-SYS features a software-based, multi-zone paging platform that enables native Q-SYS network page stations deployed throughout the airport. In total, the page stations support 256 network channels of live or delayed paging, page routing and store-and-forward capabilities without the need for additional control processing hardware.

QSC loudspeakers and amplifiers provide audio throughout the facility. Each of the 12 zones in the installation includes a redundant QSC CXD-Q Series 8-ch network amplifier setup, while the loudspeaker complement includes over 850 of the new AcousticDesign Series column surface-mount loudspeakers. The column loudspeakers offer better performance for high ceilings and reverberant environments like those found in the Santiago Airport concourses. The narrow vertical coverage pattern produces less audio excitation in these kinds of spaces, resulting in better clarity throughout the vocal range.

“It is crucial that announcements be heard loud and clear throughout the airport,” explains Jorge Cañete, ELVS Engineer at VCGP-Astaldi (CJV). “We chose QSC column loudspeakers because they offer speech intelligibility that far exceeds any of the other solutions we tested; and by deploying these with Q-SYS processing and network amplifiers, we can take advantage of QSC voicings along with additional monitoring and management capabilities that really make this the optimal solution for the application.”

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