An Airport Renaissance: How Newark Airport Achieved Crystal-Clear Audio

The brand-new, Terminal A at New Jersey's Newark Airport—a one-million-square-foot facility with 33 gates—is the largest single investment in New Jersey in the Port Authority’s history. The terminal boasts 21st-century technology, including an immersive digital journey with crystal clear audio served from AtlasIED’s GLOBALCOM communications platform.

Completed in 2023, the terminal has already served 15 million passengers in its first year, captivates passengers with the Garden State's renowned landmarks, art, and innovations through a series of permanent large-scale multimedia installations designed to prioritize the New Jersey sense of place that is distinct to the aesthetic and design of Terminal A.

When the Port Authority began planning the renovations for Terminal A, they turned to long-term integration partners MKJ Communications to help design the complex paging system that would serve the massive complex. MKJ had previous experience outfitting airport terminals as part of LaGuardia Terminal B’s AV overhaul and was well-suited to tackle a project of Terminal A’s scale.

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“Airports generally have very high noise floors,” said Ylli Dika, project manager for MKJ Communications. “From travelers to vehicles to machinery, it adds up to significant audio fatigue in a short amount of time. We knew we needed a system that would provide the necessary audibility and intelligibility for sharing critical travel announcements, which is why we recommended GLOBALCOM.”

MKJ’s implementation team chose the AtlasIED TitanONE T112 smart mainframe power amplifiers to provide signal automation, processing, and amplification in a single modular solution. When fully populated with amplifier cards, it offers 12 main channels of amplification and two backup channels for redundancy. If an amplifier card fails, the digital signal processing is automatically switched to the backup amplifier card.

The T112 is also equipped with SystemAssured Supervision for entire system monitoring and fault detection to ensure worry-free 24/7 operation. It incorporates AtlasIED’s patented smart technology called AlwaysHEAR, which ensures that the audio levels are automatically adjusted to the perfect sound level. 48 TitanONE T112s were used to power over 2300 in-ceiling, pendant, and surface mount loudspeakers installed throughout the terminal.

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Paging throughout Terminal A is initiated from any of the 120 Dante-enabled AtlasIED IED570DDT-H digital communication stations deployed at the gates, ticket counters, and central operations. The devices have a fully programmable touchscreen user interface and a handheld microphone. The handheld microphone assembly contains an omnidirectional electret condenser microphone cartridge that eliminates the proximity effect of creating a “boomy” sound when a user speaks close to a microphone.

The Port Authority also wanted to integrate the GLOBALCOM platform with the airport fire evacuation and alarm system to better coordinate communication activities with passengers. Whenever a fire alarm is triggered in the terminal, the paging system is muted with the exception of the fire command mic station in central operations. MKJ used IP-1522LR logic/relay modules to integrate the fire alarm and paging systems together. The PoE-powered programmable relay device can be used for a wide variety of remote control and automation applications and is equipped with two electro-mechanical relays and two optically isolated inputs.

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“Integrating the fire alarm and paging system was challenging, but the GLOBALCOM platform helped simplify the installation while also making it easy to create and modify paging zones as requirements evolved,” said Dika. “Our partnership with AtlasIED and experience with its products made the installation go smoothly, and we’re very proud of our role in making Terminal A a world-class experience for travelers.”

Feedback from passengers traveling through Terminal A has been overwhelmingly positive. The attention to detail is evident in every aspect of the terminal—there's even a children’s lending library curated by a local fifth grader and an indoor playground. Passengers visiting this award-winning terminal can hear audio and receive instructions from airport personnel with clarity, reducing travel-related stress and helping terminal operations run smoothly and safely.