Barix IP Devices Bring Innovation to Classroom Bell System at Excelsior Education Center
Barix collaborates with AcroVista Software BellCommander system for automated classroom bells, and introduces music streaming and paging applications to public charter school in California
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND, October 24, 2007 – Barix AG, a pioneer in IP-based audio, intercom, control and monitoring, announces that Excelsior Education Center, a public charter school for Grades 7-12 in Victorville, California, has installed 28 Barix Exstreamer IP audio decoders and one Barix Annuncicom IP intercom device throughout its campus to signal classroom bells, stream music, and provide live paging and pre-recorded emergency messaging across the campus. The school saved nearly $40,000 compared to a traditional bell system with tone generators, and is finding far more value with Barix through the IP environment.
“Traditional bell systems limit you to tone generators,” said Stephen Benedict, Network Administrator at Excelsior Education Center. “Our goal was to find a system that would allow us to take advantage of our existing Ethernet and fiber infrastructure to stream music and announcements in addition to firing bells. The Barix devices allowed us to achieve this goal through low costs and innovation.”
The Barix Exstreamers work in tandem with the AcroVista Software BellCommander scheduling system, which automatically sends bell alarms to the Exstreamer devices in classrooms and outdoor areas to signal the beginning and end of each class. BellCommander is a software program that resides on a central PC and seamlessly communicates with the Exstreamers over the existing IP infrastructure. The system can address each message to a single classroom, a group, or across the campus.
Inside the classrooms, the Exstreamers are mounted to a wall with a single speaker, receiving the BellCommander signal over the Ethernet/fiber backbone. Outdoors, the school has installed four Peavey loudspeakers, each with one Exstreamer to receive both bell signals from BellCommander and music streamed from the Barix Annuncicom.
“The Annuncicom is the element that allows us to stream music both indoors and outdoors,” said Benedict. “It performs the function of a media server, taking in MP3 files from an iPod or off a computer and streaming them directly to the Exstreamers, which decode the audio for playback over the speakers. A priority port on the Exstreamer ensures that when the bells fire from BellCommander, they take priority over the music from the Annuncicom.”
The paging application is still a work in progress, according to Benedict. “We plan to use the Annuncicom for live paging applications, which would include morning announcements from students in addition to basic student and personnel paging,” he said. “The BellCommander system will be used to send pre-recorded announcements to the Exstreamers for PA system playback. That would be more for emergency messages, fire drills, and other alarming applications.”
Visit www.barix.com, e-mail info@barix.com, or call 866-815-0866 for more information.