Combiners Introduction¶

Introduction¶

In many hotels, the ballroom and conference room spaces are constructed with moveable walls so that the total space may be partitioned into many small rooms, or fewer large rooms. This offers great flexibility in the physical realm to accommodate a wide variety of events. Your audio system needs to offer similar flexibility to deal with the sound-reinforcement needs of such a dynamic environment. In Symetrix, room combiner modules offer a convenient solution to this problem.

Note: Room combining is not supported with gating automixers. Do not attempt to use the gating automixers with the Room Combining modules!

Functionality¶

A room combiner module offers one input and output for each partitioned room in a larger space. In this context the number of rooms in the module is the number of rooms obtained when all walls are closed. For example, a rectangular space with two moveable walls is considered to have (3) rooms.

If two rooms are combined, then the audio inputs for these two rooms are mixed together and sent to both rooms. If they are separate, then the audio is not mixed and each room receives its respective signal. In this case, the input is passed through to the output.

Fundamentally, a room combiner consists of a matrix mixer with equal number of inputs and outputs. Depending on how the rooms are combined, it could be acting like a mixer/distribution amp, a simple pass-through, or something in between.

While you could also use a matrix for room combining, a dedicated room combiner module offers a much more simple interface to activate the combine function. With a matrix, one would have to laboriously figure out how to set up each matrix crosspoint depending on the specific room configuration. Instead, simply indicate which rooms are combined and let Symetrix figure out the rest. A single button press activates each desired combination. Room combiner modules also greatly simplify setting up remote controls (contact closure, ARC, 3rd Party Controllers).

Note: In a (3) room combine scenario, if Room 1 is combined with Room 2 and Room 2 is combined with Room 3, then by default Room 1 is combined with Room 3 indirectly. They are combined through their combination with room 2.