Perth Police Station
The custodial desk area and holding cells at a police station in urban Perth are constructed primarily with concrete, reinforced glass, and steel, which are known to present significant acoustical challenges. CCTV is everywhere, for the protection of the police officers and all those going through the system. There are plenty of microphones as well, because hearing a comment, an admission or a confession, and having that audio properly recorded for later review could prove crucial for any number of reasons. And while CCTV systems have dramatically improved in recent years, audio has dragged its heels. In an environment such as the police station’s custodial area, speech intelligibility is terrible. The acoustics are harsh, and the background noise is often extreme.
Solution by Integrate Perth
This is the situation Integrate Perth was hired to improve. The AV integrator installed an audio system with Biamp Tesira as the nerve center, which featured Tesira acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) technology.
Integrate Perth’s Sales Director Andrew Anderson-King explains: “In our initial tests we simply ran some CCTV footage with associated audio through Tesira AEC processing and had a listen on a little powered speaker. Our jaws dropped. Environmental noise, such as holding cell doors slamming or yelling in the background, along with the harsh reverberation of the space, had all but disappeared. What resulted were intelligible spoken words. We instantly knew we were onto something.”
The Tesira AEC improves everyone’s safety and is now useful for staff training. I can see other applications where mission-critical audio is important, but the acoustic conditions are hostile. For example, Customs and the Border Force could benefit, as could warehousing, and the Port Authority. They could all benefit from Tesira AEC cleaning up recorded speech.
ANDREW ANDERSON-KING
Sales Director
Integrate Perth
Conclusion
There are approximately 100 microphones across the police station. And now, the captured hi-res CCTV video has corresponding audio processed by Tesira AEC technology.
“It’s a big leap forward,” confirms Integrate Perth’s Anderson King. “The Tesira AEC improves everyone’s safety and is now useful for staff training. I can see other applications where mission-critical audio is important, but the acoustic conditions are hostile. For example, Customs and the Border Force could benefit, as could warehousing, and the Port Authority. They could all benefit from Tesira AEC cleaning up recorded speech.”