INTERALIA - A LEADER FOR OVER 30 YEARS IN PA/VA

The company’s first foray was within the telecommunication industry developing systems such as Music On Hold and Voice Messaging. Expansion resulted in the company gaining recognition in the field of automated voice & audio systems and resulted in Interalia opening a worldwide network of offices in the UK, USA and Australia. In the early 1990s Interalia was approached to design a new format in audio message, storing and digital voice announcing for large public areas. The rail industry was the first to use the system to take over day-to-day station messaging to make better use of staff time and ensure clarity of messages.

Towards this end, Interalia created the Commander Digital voice announcing system (DVA), a hi-spec industrial PC with touch screen graphical interface for ease of use and full RAID array duel drives for 24/7 operation. Able to operate in the harsh working environment of the rail industry the Commander was the first system of its type to offer 10 independent simultaneous audio channels, thereby allowing independent messaging control to multiple zoned areas. Over the years there as been many enhancements to the Commander DVA but the fundamental system structure has remained.

The TROUNCER followed the Commander, providing a single board Digital Audio announcer utilising onboard memory to allow large audio databases to be stored and updated via SD card. Ethernet connectivity and many other data transmission formats ensure that the messages are constantly updated for customer’s requirements, which enhances the usage of the PA systems and makes the TROUNCER ideal for audio advertising. The system’s design has incorporated many automated and manual ways of triggering the messages including web browser front ends, dedicated graphic user interfaces - tailored to site specific requirements and simple closed contacts from a relay or switch.

The popularity of these cost-effective, automated audio solutions have been such that these units are now being utilised in many projects to supply Real Time information for the public bus systems to enable Councils to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act. Utilising wireless communication and computer software, the ISU provides the interface between the Communications’s System and the Display Electronics. A black box on the bus transmits information to a central computer via radio link. This enables the computer to track the bus’s progress and update the ISU at each individual bus stop. The ISU is able to hold the entire timetable for all Bus Services that it is displaying.

Other uses of Interalia’s TROUCER can be found at Caledonian Macbrayne’s newly opened ferry terminal in Oban, where it enables operators to programme a series of general announcements during the day and also enter the timetable arrival and departure announcements thereby freeing up staff. TROUCER is being utilised within the Kölnarena centre as a public address announcement system, providing visitors with information and jingles.