Shure Microflex provides cost-efficient installation for USC
Published: ASIA
AUSTRALIA: Following the construction of the University of Sunshine Coast’s (USC) new $33 million Learning and Teaching Hub at its campus in Queensland, Shure Microflex Wireless (MWX) hardware has been installed to provide communication for users throughout. The MXW system designed by InDesign Technologies uses Dante to carry digital audio signals over standard Ethernet, making use of building’s existing cabling infrastructure to reduce costs.
‘The audio signals had to be routed amongst three separate areas within the building,’ explained Peter Coman, managing director of InDesign Technologies. ‘Even though it was one building, the long distances between areas posed significant problems when transporting the audio signal, so we specified the Shure MXW range of wireless microphones using Dante as the transport protocol. So for example, if the audio from the Immerse Studio needed to be recorded, it could easily be transported via Dante to the Nursing Simulation recording suite.’
The institution had been previously using other brands but InDesign conducted an evaluation process in anticipation of the upcoming spectrum change in Australia before settling on the MXW hardware.
‘They really liked the Shure products, even little things like the on/off button on the handheld microphones, a feature which had previously caused countless user problems with other brands,’ added Mr Coman. ‘There was a similar issue with the lavalier microphones, and although it may not sound significant, the USC support team kept getting calls asking how to turn them on and off.’
By utilising Dante, the 13 wireless microphones deployed only required two ports on the DSP processor. ‘In the Nursing Simulation suite alone, we already had 31 physical microphone inputs, so the last thing we wanted to do was add another 13 to the already heavily populated DSP,’ furthered Mr Coman. ‘All we had to do is add two MXWAPT8 wireless access point transceivers to cover all of the microphones, as each transceiver has eight channels.’
The MXW solution was also deployed at USC’s Gympie Learning Hub, which included seven MXW microphones and one transceiver.
‘It all worked perfectly and the client is very happy with the Shure solution,’ he concluded. ‘It ticks all of the boxes for USC and for us, as designers, using MXW was just perfect. Whilst the MXW microphone solution may cost more compared to standard wireless microphones, they actually saved us money because our DSPs were much smaller with less physical inputs.’