CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[Curt Palme]

You guys might like this, my latest installation at a local hospital. This system was installed circa 1990, and the Altec Lansing amps were the first generation made in Korea, and were absolute junk compared to the stuff they made in the USA.

I'm actually surprised that the system still worked given the age, although some of them had failed by the time I saw it a month ago. I flat out told the hospital that there was no point in fixing anything, that a wholesale replacement using a DSP should be installed to do the routing, and 16 channels of new 70 volt amps should drive the speakers (they had 6 zones at this point, all tied together by the analog preamp.

The nightmare was going to be troubleshooting the 4 layers of wiring in the back of the rack. The system had changed over the years from 3 sets of muting via contact closures and relays via the switchboard locally at the hospital, with preannouncement chimes, etc. Now, the paging is done via the internet, from a central call station about 70 miles away, and all the chimes are done via the incoming internet feed as well. THey have a local backup paging mic, but it doesn't work. they also had background music in some zones (thus the relays that switched over to a paging amp), but the music was taken out years ago. Naturally, none of the wiring was.

I allowed 4 days of wire troubleshooting, looks like we can get it done in 3. Today was spent sorting through the rats nest of relays, and I managed to bypass them all without killing the paging system.

Next week I'll post what replaces these two 6' racks of amps and wiring. you'll be surprised.

[Curt Palme]

You guys might like this, my latest installation at a local hospital. This system was installed circa 1990, and the Altec Lansing amps were the first generation made in Korea, and were absolute junk compared to the stuff they made in the USA.

I'm actually surprised that the system still worked given the age, although some of them had failed by the time I saw it a month ago. I flat out told the hospital that there was no point in fixing anything, that a wholesale replacement using a DSP should be installed to do the routing, and 16 channels of new 70 volt amps should drive the speakers (they had 6 zones at this point, all tied together by the analog preamp.

The nightmare was going to be troubleshooting the 4 layers of wiring in the back of the rack. The system had changed over the years from 3 sets of muting via contact closures and relays via the switchboard locally at the hospital, with preannouncement chimes, etc. Now, the paging is done via the internet, from a central call station about 70 miles away, and all the chimes are done via the incoming internet feed as well. THey have a local backup paging mic, but it doesn't work. they also had background music in some zones (thus the relays that switched over to a paging amp), but the music was taken out years ago. Naturally, none of the wiring was.

I allowed 4 days of wire troubleshooting, looks like we can get it done in 3. Today was spent sorting through the rats nest of relays, and I managed to bypass them all without killing the paging system.

Next week I'll post what replaces these two 6' racks of amps and wiring. you'll be surprised.

[kal]

Love the semi-retro phone!

I only call it 'semi-retro' - it would need a full rotary dial to be a true 'true' phone.

Showing my age here, but I remember being annoyed trying to call anyone that had a lot of 7/8/9's or 0's in their phone number... always took so much longer to dial waiting for that thing to spin back around...

Kal

[kal]

Love the semi-retro phone!

I only call it 'semi-retro' - it would need a full rotary dial to be a true 'true' phone.

Showing my age here, but I remember being annoyed trying to call anyone that had a lot of 7/8/9's or 0's in their phone number... always took so much longer to dial waiting for that thing to spin back around...

Kal

[CIR Engineering]

Ug, I could never do it Curt. I hate cleaning up messes like that. What a wire nightmare.

craigr

[Curt Palme]

I love doing stuff like this! at least you don't need a magnifying glass and tweezers and liquid flux!

Wait until I post an 'after' picture.

I'm doing another hospital today, I'll post pix of that one too..

[Curt Palme]

I love doing stuff like this! at least you don't need a magnifying glass and tweezers and liquid flux!

Wait until I post an 'after' picture.

I'm doing another hospital today, I'll post pix of that one too..

[Spanky Ham]

Are you giving them an iRule system as well?

[Curt Palme]

No, no need for it. I have been telling all sorts of people about it but in the last few installs, they haven't been needed.

I have it quoted into 3 jobs right now, but none have gone ahead yet.

As for the hospital installation, below is the almost finished replacement for the pix above. I cut a new piece of aluminum to replace the relay panel, and with DSP doing all of the signal routing and switching, all the below is just speaker zone terminations.

It's not quite done yet, as the official switchover of the system from old to new takes place tomorrow, which explains the loose crimp connector on the upper right, and some of the jumpers, to keep the old system going.

[Curt Palme]

No, no need for it. I have been telling all sorts of people about it but in the last few installs, they haven't been needed.

I have it quoted into 3 jobs right now, but none have gone ahead yet.

As for the hospital installation, below is the almost finished replacement for the pix above. I cut a new piece of aluminum to replace the relay panel, and with DSP doing all of the signal routing and switching, all the below is just speaker zone terminations.

It's not quite done yet, as the official switchover of the system from old to new takes place tomorrow, which explains the loose crimp connector on the upper right, and some of the jumpers, to keep the old system going.