Having long ago outgrown its original elementary school, which was erected in
1902, the town of Tonganoxie, Kansas is pleased to have a brand new state-of-the-
art elementary school that, at 145,000-square feet, more than doubles the space
available in the old building and makes Tonganoxie’s new school the largest
elementary school in the state. And that’s a good thing, because Tonganoxie – a
nearby suburb of Kansas City – is growing rapidly! But the new elementary school
does much more than relieve classroom crowding. It provides teachers and students
with cutting-edge technologies that improve learning outcomes. The building’s two
gym/multipurpose rooms underscore the importance of physical health and exercise
to mental performance, and the building’s two music rooms underscore the
interrelationship between the arts and academics. For both types of facilities, the
Kansas City office of Electronic Contracting Company (ECC) installed sound
reinforcement systems centred on reliable, flexible Ashly Audio processing,
amplification, and simple user control.

“Each gym and each music room had to be a completely independent system from
the user’s point of view,’ explained Kyle Robinson, lead installer on the project for
ECC, “but from a design point of view, it made sense to combine the equipment for
each gym/music room pair. We had to take care to be sure that all the spaces could
perform simultaneously and independently, without any interference or interaction
between them. Ashly made it easy to set that up, and Ashly’s reliability will give the
school years of uninterrupted operation.’

Each gym/multipurpose room contains a rack with an Ashly ne24.24M Protea™
Matrix Processor configured for twelve inputs and four outputs. Inputs that stay with
each gym include two wireless microphones, a selection of wired mics, and a
CD/Aux/Digital Media player. Inputs that stay with each associated music room
include independent wireless mics, wired mics, and a media player. Although all the
inputs from one gym and one music room feed a single Ashly ne24.24M, Robinson
configured it so that they remain completely separated within the internal routing
structure. Outputs from each processor feed an Ashly ne4250.70 four-channel 250-
Watt amplifier (one per rack), which in turn powers 70-volt Community V2-28WT
loudspeakers.

“Despite the overlap in equipment, we were able to use Ashly RD-8C remote
controls to give each gym sole control over its input volumes and output volume,’
Robinson said. “The RD-8C controls the input level of each mic, the input level of
the CD/Aux unit, and a level control for the master volume output. This gives them
mixing capability when running multiple mics for performances or assemblies with
multiple singers or speakers. It also gives them the ability to easily and quickly
make adjustments as needed. Each music room uses an Ashly WR-1.5 Rear Panel
Remote level control, which operates the master volume for the music space and
allows for source selection. The RD-8C and WR-1.5 are both easy to setup and easy
for the end user to operate. The RD-8C combines ease-of-use and the capability to
set several individual levels when needed.’

Robinson was happy to report that Tonganoxie’s staff trained-in on the system
without complication and that since the systems went in, everyone has been able to
focus on educating Tonganoxie’s students using the transparent and ever-ready
sound systems ECC installed.