COMPUTERISED SOUND SYSTEM HELPS CHOOSE STEREO EQUIPMENT

Press, 14 December 1977, Page 30

COMPUTERISED SOUND SYSTEM HELPS CHOOSE STEREO EQUIPMENT

i Selecting a sound ; system can often be a be- ' wildering and agonizing ; experience. After all, hi-fi equipi ment is a costly investment and when one is i faced with more than a I dozen tape decks, record turntables, amplifiers and pairs of speakers to choose from, the decision is seldom a simple one. The expanded duty free shop, though, has installed a computerized sound system to make selection of stereo equipment a little easier, quicker and more comfortable. The Duty Free Shop stocks sound equipment from four manufacturers — Akai, Sony, Technics (National) and Sanyo. The shop has acquired a switching system from each of those manufacturers which enables a customer to hear any tape deck or record turntable combined with any amplifier and any pair of speakers, simply by pressing a button. The Akai system can accommodate eight pairs of speakers, three turntables, three tape decks and three amplifers. Sony has six pairs of speakers, three turntables, three tape decks and three amplifiers, as does the Sanyo system. Technics provides for the largest selection, with 10 pairs of speakers, six record turntables, six tape decks and six amplifiers. As the system is set. up it is not possible to combine components from different manufacturers without disconnecting a component from one display and connecting it with another. That means it. is not easy to hear a Technics turntable with an Akai amplifier through Sony Speakers. The four switching systems came from their Japanese manufacturers, but it took a great deal of local design and ingenuity

to install them in the Duty Free Shop. Mr Peter Williams, a lighting and electrical services design engineer with Arnold Jensen, Limited, was working on the lighting in the new complex when the Managing Director, Mr J. A. Schneideman. approached him about the four sound systems. Mr Schneideman was concerned about the mass of wires the equipment was entangled in and wondered if there was any way they could be made to disappear from sight. Mr Williams, who once owned a hi-fi shop and has worked with sound equipment at home as a hobby, retired to his workshop for burying all the cables in the wall. He came out with an extremely efficient and tidy rewirable wall system with indicator lamps. Mr Williams made the 85 necessary outlet plates by hand. Behind those plates he has concealed 1000 m of cable and 1260 soldered connections. Encountering problems matching the continental outlets, Mr Williams completely drained all the stocks of phono plugs and sockets in Christchurch. He needed 268 of them. The Sanyo system was the only unit which came with indicator lamps. The purpose of such lamps is to enable a customer to see which components he is listening to at any time. For the Akai, Sony and Technics systems, Mr Williams designed indicator lamps within the wall outlets. On the outlet plates behind each component there is a light which comes on when that component is playing. The advantage of the computerised sound system is its versatilty and ease of operation. Just by pushing a few buttons a customer can listen to numerous combinations of hi-fi components within minutes.