With a combined area of over 300 acres, the three vast ACS International School campuses in Cobham, Hillingdon and Egham enrol a total of 2,400 students, offering both day and boarding education. The students come from over 70 countries, predominantly the USA.
SDD Sound & Light says it chose Bosch Praesideo because, unlike traditional PA systems, which connect all elements to a central controller, Praesideo uses a network configuration. Nigel Clark, operations manager at SDD explains: “This is the most complex installation of the Bosch Praesideo system in the UK to date. It took a team of eight SDD engineers six months to complete, using all the expertise of our IT engineers to successfully link the three systems together over the internet.
“At each campus, fibre-optic connections link the buildings. The project required an extraordinary total of 30km of fibre optic cables and 20km of copper cabling for speakers. The system is so advanced that if, for example, a microphone is accidentally unplugged, an alert is transmitted over the internet to the SDD offices.”
The Praesideo system can also be used in non-emergency situations. At the sports facilities on the Cobham campus, for example, the system serves a dual purpose as an integrated music and paging system, broadcasting music in the main arena, two gyms, two dance studios and the competition-standard pool, as well as sending out important pre-recorded announcements.
