Mixer? Amp. Powersoft’s “Dynamic Music Distribution” Explained

Never let a good tagline get in the way of the message. The recent announcement of Powersoft’s Dynamic Music Distribution platform has left some system integrators scratching their head as to what it actually means. As is often the way with technical innovations that have little to no precedent, they can be hard to find the words to explain. Allow us to clear the air:

Powersoft have developed a range of wall mount controllers, along with a web interface and built-in network connections that mean that you can install routable, controllable multi-source, multi-zone audio in an installation using only their simple install amplifiers. No additional mixer amps, mixers, DSP, or network switches required.

To put it in real world terms:

You’re fitting out audio in a multi-zone hospitality venue. Where you previously would have had to buy DSP, amps, switching, and wall mount controllers, all you need to buy now are amps and wall mount controllers. Or just the amps and app control for free, if you and the client prefer.

Using a 4-channel Powersoft Mezzo amp, you could drive four independent zones with four independent inputs. Via Dante, with network switching built-in to the amps, any connected inputs are available on every other device on the network. Using either Powersoft’s WM Touch touchscreen wall controllers, or the simpler WN Panel controllers, staff in the venue can select sources from anywhere else in the venue and control the volume. They can also be set up to do this via Powersoft’s SYS Control App on their phones. If you choose the app control option, all you’re buying is the amps.

That’s it – multizone audio with an embarrassment of control options, with built-in network switching. All you buy is the amps. Savvy? We think so.

Powersoft Case Study: Matches Sports Bar, Grill & Social, Kent, UK

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Two Mezzo 604 ADs, Powersoft’s four-channel, 600W compact amplifier, are powering the entirety of the 250-capacity Matches Sports Bar, Grill & Social, forming the core of a unique hospitality venue incorporating multiple distinct audio zones and spaces. Tucked away behind the counter, a single 4.3” wall-mounted Powersoft WM Touch screen gives complete control of the entire DMD system, including Mezzo’s embedded dynamic routing capabilities.

“By using Powersoft’s Dynamic Music Distribution solution, we were able to keep our design simple all the way through, from designing the project to handing it over to the client,” explains Ashley Bond, managing director of system designer and installer MADE Worldwide. “The client is then left with a powerful start-to-finish solution from a single industry leading manufacturer, providing them with a safe and secure audio system that’s really going to push through.”

Matches Sports Bar, located at Elwick Place in Ashford, around 95km south of London, opened in June and has been doing roaring business ever since, its food and drink, live sports and evening entertainment proving popular with both locals and Eurostar passengers. Jon Shephard, Matches’ owner, says the concept for the venue is to combine “all the best bits of the bars I’ve been to throughout my life, all into one place” to create the “ultimate sports bar experience”.

With a single four-channel Mezzo amplifier now able to drive up to four independent zones of audio, thanks to Powersoft’s new ArmoníaPlus 2.2 software release, the DMD ecosystem was the natural choice to bring to life Shephard’s vision for the venue, with a “tailored sound experience in each individual area.”

Powersoft’s UK distributor, CUK Audio, supplied MADE with the Mezzos and WM Touch, as well as the AUDAC loudspeakers (ATEO wall-mounted speakers, CIRA ceiling speakers, and BASO10 and NOBA8 subwoofers) the amplifiers power. Its installed AV channel manager, Steve Barton, says multiple output options like those on the Mezzo 604 AD were essential for a venue like Matches, where a single amplifier is able to power both Lo- and Hi-Z loudspeakers.

“DMD was key here,” comments Barton, “because it provides a really cost-effective and stylish way of routing audio around venues like this. Here, we need small amounts of power going to smaller zones, like the toilets or corridors, and a large amount of power to provide high-quality, pumping audio to get the atmosphere going in the bar area. This is where the Mezzo amplifier running the Dynamic Music Distribution system really shines.”

“The Powersoft amps have up to four channels running 600W, with full Power Sharing across all the channels. And the key here is that they can do low impedance and a 100V line on the same amplifier, all using the integral DSP, in a half RU space, so you can fit a heck of a lot of processing power in a really, really tiny space.”

Despite its high spec, the Powersoft system is so competitively priced that recommending it to MADE for the Matches project was very straightforward. In fact, so impressed were the MADE team by the system installed at Matches that the company is already speccing almost identical systems for several upcoming projects. “That’s off the back of how strongly it’s performed at Matches,” Bond continues. “It’s definitely become our go-to solution for hospitality projects, so much so that we even hold stock of it just to have it when we need it.”

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