We have an exciting opportunity for a Field Service Technician to join our team. B.L.Acoustics Ltd operate within multiple areas of the audio industry but primarily within the Public Address & Voice Alarm sector.
We are looking for an enthusiastic and well-organised individual who has an aptitude for fault finding, diagnosing and resolving technical problems. You will deal directly with customers and attend a variety of different sites across the UK. This is a full-time position (Monday to Friday) and requires work to be carried out outside the company‘s core hours. This includes night or weekend work, allowing the applicant to earn substantially more than their basic wage.
The successful applicant will receive on-the-job training on the various systems we maintain. An interest in audio systems or similar electronic systems would be preferred, and experience from other industries in communications and electronics will be considered.
Area of Responsibility & Key Activities
– Service and maintenance of PAVA systems
– Reactive maintenance of PAVA systems
– System upgrade works and system programming
– Providing visit/fault reports
– Basic acoustic measurement and analysis
– System installation
– Out of hours working and call out cover on a rota basis
Education level and/or relevant experience(s)
– Relevant engineering qualification would be preferred but not required
– Full UK driving license
– Good IT skills
Personal qualities (general and technical)
– Strong fault-finding skills
– Able to lead from the front with a visible ‘can do’ attitude.
– Self-motivated and able to work without full supervision
– Strong numeracy and literacy skills
– Personal drive and determination to achieve success.
– Must have a confident and professional manner in front of customers.
To apply, please click here: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2644825883
B L Acoustics are proud to add another notch to our belt, having successfully completed the replacement of the public address and voice alarm systems at the (formerly named) Arena Birmingham. The old systems were replaced with Bosch Praesideo EN54 compliant systems communicating via a site-wide optical network installed and designed by BLA.
Utilita Arena Birmingham is an indoor arena and sporting venue with a capacity for 15,800 people. Each year (excluding lockdown), the venue hosts over 100 live events and welcomes half a million visitors through its doors. In 2018 the venue underwent a major renovation with remodelling of the concourse areas and public realm.
A site maintenance visit highlighted several issues with the site’s PAVA system. The main issue was the lack of audibility in certain areas during an evacuation, particularly the main concourse area. The audibility problems were caused by a combination of high noise levels from the smoke extract fans and unsuitability of the loudspeakers installed as part of the renovation project
B L Acoustics have been maintaining the systems at the ever-developing site for many years which helped us to acquire substantial site-specific information which proved to be valuable throughout the complex installation. This benefit enabled us to recognise that maintenance visits before 2019 continued to report existing and new issues across the system with some components beyond their recommended life.
Our Proposal
A solution was designed for the problem areas and modelled using acoustic modelling software. More suitable loudspeakers and an improved layout was proposed and installed to produce much improved audibility even when the smoke extract was running. The increased power requirements of the new loudspeaker layout design had an effect on the rest of the system as higher power loudspeakers require more amplification, and more amplification requires higher capacity battery support.
Our proposal offered replacement equipment which would have the capacity to support the improved loudspeaker coverage throughout the building. This would include the installation of a new high integrity fibre cable network between each of the equipment locations. As well as changing the loudspeaker layout in the concourse areas, each voice alarm loudspeaker across the site was upgraded to new EN54 variants.
During the operation of the aforementioned fans, the SPL level would need to be a substantial level, which would be too high for normal PA announcements. The system includes for ambient noise sensing in the concourse areas to allow the full potential of the system to be used when the fans are operational but keeps PA announcements at a comfortable level during normal operation.
One of the major priorities our client expressed was that the systems could remain in full use throughout the replacement process. The venue is an extremely busy one, meaning that downtime of the system would have been unacceptable and hazardous to life safety.
System Replacement
The completed project was a result of thirty days/nights of work, involving multiple phases of installation, commencing with the fitting of a new resilient loop in fire-rated cable across the site. To ensure the site remained operational throughout the installation process, temporary audio and control links were fitted between the new and existing systems so that both systems could operate concurrently while circuits were switched over from the old system to the new.
Microphone Panels
The old system had both emergency fireman’s microphone and paging microphone units located in various positions throughout the site. B L Acoustics provided replacement units and in the case of the fireman’s microphone provided re-engineered panels which were custom-built to fit their location.
Loudspeakers
Choosing loudspeaker types was critical to the project with tight specifications to provide key criteria:
– EN54 Compliance
– Acoustic Performance
– Aesthetics
– Programme Windows
All loudspeakers were replaced to meet the latest EN54 standards; compact Bosch ceiling loudspeakers were utilised in most areas.
