Polar brings Atmosphere to Harris Academy
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A key area of focus for the academy’s management team is the maintenance of clear communications within its corridors and communal spaces. The school ‘bell’ is fundamental to the smooth operation of the timetable, with HACH placing strong emphasis on punctuality to ensure that students take maximum advantage of teaching time
With this in mind, the HACH team engaged AV solutions provider Excite AV of Bishops Stortford to install a system which offered intuitive head-end control and optimal loudspeaker placement, in order to ensure the timely movement of students around the school. With more than 50 years of combined experience, Excite AV is a preferred supplier of the Harris Federation, which runs 52 primary and secondary academies across London and Essex.
The control element of the system was supplied by Polar following discussions between Excite’s project lead Gareth Thomas and Polar Integrated Solutions’ Mark Bracken. Mark recommended that the requirement for a multi zone audio processor with a built-in bell scheduler would be best met by the Atlas IED Atmosphere AZM4. The unit is a 4-Zone audio processor with powerful DSP combined with innovative algorithms, which offers custom solutions for a wide variety of spaces.
Mark Bracken arranged a demonstration of the system at Excite’s head office and followed up with online training for its installation team. Polar’s service and support team were on hand during the installation to assist with any issues arising.
“The Atmosphere is a real processing powerhouse for hospitality, retail and education environments - in fact anywhere where automated audio system control is essential,” says Bracken. “The bell scheduler is just one of its wide range of features, and programming is made simple through a modern on-board web interface, which has been optimised around common use cases.”
Excite AV’s operations director Gareth Thomas worked closely with HACH head of maintenance, Samantha Rolfe, on the project. Both expressed great satisfaction with the outcome:
“I can’t recommend Excite AV enough,” says Samantha, “their professionalism and delivery of the project has been second to none. We’ve had a great response to the new system from the students - it’s been a very successful addition to the academy.”
