Intelligibility in complex environments

Transportation & public spaces

Looking for loudspeakers that stay intelligible in a reverberant station concourse or on an open platform? EDC's SC-30, SC-60 and SC-90 columns aim up to four beams at platforms and concourses, steer from 1° to 120° horizontally and vertically, and mount horizontally to cut cross-platform spill. They are installed at Sydney Central Station and across the Sydney Trains network, with Dante input and a monitored version for fault reporting.

Transportation hubs and public spaces are acoustically challenging. Noise levels are high. Surfaces are reflective. Audiences are distributed and transient. EDC systems deliver clear, intelligible sound while minimising spill and reverberation, so announcements remain understandable without increasing volume.

Sydney Central Station

Sydney Central is a heritage-listed interchange serving over 250,000 people a day. The brief was to reduce environmental noise spill and cross-platform interference while achieving high intelligibility in specific areas. SC-series columns were mounted horizontally to keep announcements on their own platform, far fewer cabinets were needed than a conventional distributed system, and Dante input with network daisy-chaining simplified installation and expansion. Transducer and amplifier faults are monitored remotely. Read the case study.

What a transport specifier needs

Datasheets, rigging drawings and A&E text are in Resources, which also sets out where we stand on EASE data, voice-alarm certification and rigging load ratings — read those before tender rather than assuming a document exists.

Case studies

Transportation May 2024

Sydney Trains — Central Station

Sydney, Australia

Heritage-listed interchange serving 250,000 people a day. Horizontally mounted SC columns cut cross-platform spill, improved intelligibility and needed far fewer cabinets than a distributed system.

SC-30 · SC-60 · SC-90

Hardware typically specified

SC-30

Compact 30-channel column for space-limited installations.

30 ch from $7,044

SC-60

60-channel column — the workhorse for rooms and halls.

60 ch from $10,188

SC-90

90-channel column — full control from 350 Hz.

90 ch from $13,104

Frequently asked questions

Why do conventional PA speakers sound unclear in a station?

Hard surfaces reflect sound for several seconds, so each announcement arrives many times. A fixed horn sends most of its energy at walls and ceilings. A steered beam puts the energy on the platform and little elsewhere, so the direct sound wins.

Can the columns be mounted horizontally?

Yes. Horizontal mounting was used at Sydney Central to reduce spill across platforms; mounting drawings are in Resources. We do not manufacture the rigging hardware, so the working load limits come from the maker's documentation — ask us or your distributor for the certificate for the item you are specifying.

Do they take Dante audio?

A Dante input is an option on every model, with network daisy-chaining for installation and expansion. Two channels are carried over Dante or AES67 and either can be assigned to any of the four beams; control runs on a separate network port by default.

Can the system report faults?

The monitored version reports transducer, thermal and amplifier faults over the network, without the assumptions of impedance-based line monitoring. It is built for EN 60849 voice-alarm systems, but the loudspeaker is not separately certified — voice-alarm approval is granted to the installed system, so bring the certifying body in at design stage.

Are they weatherproof for open platforms?

Standard cabinets are rated IP55 and the weatherised version IP65, with stainless hardware, a sealed grille and IP65 connectors. All models run from −20 °C to +50 °C. These are our own ratings, not third-party IEC 60529 test results.

Next step

Hear what happens when nothing else interferes.

An EDC session is a technical evaluation of sound behaviour, not a sales demonstration. See reflections reduced, coverage stabilised and spatial accuracy preserved — modelled first, then measured.

Experience the precision → See it modelled