Q-SYS Platform | Southern Colorado
Q-SYS Audio, Video, and Control for Southern Colorado
One processor runs the boardroom call, the dining room music, the patio zone, and the page to the back of the warehouse. That is the pitch, and for once the pitch is just true. GTZ designs, programs, installs, and supports Q-SYS across Fountain, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and the I-25 corridor.
What Is Q-SYS?
One Core Instead of a Rack of Boxes
Strip away the brochure language and Q-SYS is a simple idea executed well. It is a software platform from QSC that runs commercial audio, video, and control on one processor called a Core. The mixing and routing that used to need dedicated digital signal processing (DSP) hardware, the touch panels that used to need a separate control processor and a separate programmer, the paging, the background music, the video routing for a conference call: all of it runs as software on that one Core, and all of it talks over the same kind of Ethernet network your computers already use. The old way stacked a different box for every job and paid a different specialist to program each one, and when something broke, the boxes pointed fingers at each other. Q-SYS collapses that stack into one system with one design file, which is exactly why we made it the platform behind our AV design and install work.
- One Q-SYS Core runs audio, video, and control, replacing racks of single-purpose hardware
- Built on standard IT protocols, so it runs over standard Ethernet, not a proprietary AV backbone
- Designed and programmed in Q-SYS Designer Software before a single box is ordered
What One System Can Do
Eight Jobs One Core Can Take Over
You probably came here for one of these, most likely the conference room. But the other seven are why the platform deserves a look: each has long been sold as its own system from its own vendor, with its own support contract. On Q-SYS, adding one is a design change, not another rack of gear.
One-touch conference rooms
Teams, Zoom, or Google Meet starts when someone taps a button. Echo cancellation tuned to the room, not to a factory default.
Zoned background music
Dining room, bar, patio, lobby, each zone with its own source and level. The bartender adjusts it from a wall panel, not a closet.
All-call and zone paging
Page one zone, a few, or the whole building. Music ducks automatically while the page plays, then comes right back.
Scheduled announcements
Shift changes, last call, closing time, lobby-clearing announcements. Recorded once, scheduled forever, never forgotten on a busy night.
Room combining
A divisible training or banquet room that splits into two working rooms and recombines into one, audio and control following the wall.
Touch-panel control anyone can run
Presets like Dinner Service, All-Hands, or Training Mode. If your newest hire can run a phone, they can run the room.
Network loudspeakers powered over the cable
Q-SYS network loudspeakers run on standard Ethernet with power over Ethernet (PoE). No amp racks, no heavy speaker-wire home runs.
Remote device-health monitoring
On a monthly AV support plan we watch device health remotely, so a failing part often gets caught before your Monday meeting does.
Two of these jobs are big enough that we gave them their own pages. If your priority is a meeting space that starts on time, start with conference room AV. If it is music, TVs, and last-call announcements for a hospitality floor, start with restaurant and bar audio. Both land on the same platform, which means a business that needs both does not buy two systems. And if the building is in Pueblo, the local version of all of this lives on our commercial AV in Pueblo page.
Right-Sized Hardware
The Core Is Picked for Your Building, Not for the Brochure
Every Q-SYS system starts with choosing the right Core, and this is where a certified integrator earns the fee, because the differences are real and they live in the spec sheets, not the marketing. Take two processors we design around, with figures straight from QSC's own documentation. The Core Nano is built for all-network buildings where every endpoint (loudspeakers, microphones, wall controllers) lives on Ethernet. The Core 110f adds a full bank of analog input and output for buildings that mix worlds, keeping an existing analog amplifier in play while the rest of the system goes networked. Both fit in one rack space or less, and both run the same software and feature set. Picking between them is a design decision we make after the walkthrough, not a guess.
Q-SYS Core Nano
The half-rack processor for fully networked buildings. Per the spec sheet:
- 64 x 64 networked audio channels
- 8 acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) processors
- All-network design, no onboard analog audio
- Supports up to 2 VoIP (voice over IP) softphone instances for phone-based paging
- Half-rack chassis, tucks into a network closet
Q-SYS Core 110f
The single-rack-space processor that bridges analog and networked AV. Per the spec sheet:
- 128 x 128 network audio channels
- Up to 16 assignable AEC processor instances
- 24 channels of analog I/O, including 8 software-configurable Flex channels
- Up to 4 VoIP softphone instances plus a standard analog phone line
- Keeps existing analog gear in play while the system goes networked
Q-SYS Is Networked AV. So Your Installer Should Be a Network Company.
Here is the uncomfortable truth about Q-SYS: it is only as good as the network under it. Audio, video, and control all ride Ethernet, so a misconfigured switch shows up as choppy audio in the Tuesday all-hands, and an AV company that does not really do networking can end up blaming your IT company, who blames them right back. GTZ is an IT company first. The room can ride on the UniFi network we install and manage, when you want one company running both: switches configured for AV traffic from day one, network loudspeakers landing on PoE ports specified for exactly that job. Already have a network you trust? We work with it. The walkthrough is where we assess what it needs to carry AV well, and often the answer is not much. It matters locally, too. On new construction along the I-25 corridor, getting Ethernet into walls before drywall is a scheduling problem as much as a technical one, so one crew pulling network, cameras, and AV cabling in a single rough-in saves the general contractor a headache and you a change order. And for patio and exterior zones, we spec hardware for what the Front Range actually does to equipment: hail, high-altitude UV, and 40-degree temperature swings in a day. A whole-building approach is its own conversation, and we wrote it up on the complete facility page.
- Can ride on the UniFi network we install and manage, when you want one company running both
- Existing networks respected: assessed on the walkthrough, upgraded only where AV needs it
- One crew for network, low-voltage cabling, and AV, one rough-in on new construction
- Exterior zones specified for hail, high-altitude UV, and Front Range temperature swings
- Q-SYS Level One certified: the installer who designs the system is the one who supports it
- Monthly AV support plans with remote device-health monitoring, priced during the walkthrough
Design First
Proven in Software Before a Single Box Is Ordered
A Q-SYS system starts life as a file, not a purchase order. We design the whole system in Q-SYS Designer Software, the single application that programs every Q-SYS Core, and we can emulate most of the design before any hardware ships. Zones, presets, touch-panel layouts, the paging priority that ducks the patio music, all of it gets worked out on screen first. That discipline is why our quotes are fixed-price: by the time we hand you a number, the system already exists in software. It is also why growth is cheap. Because the design lives in one file, adding a room or a paging zone next year usually means extending the file and hanging hardware, not starting over.
- Free on-site walkthrough first, so the design matches the building, not a template
- Full system designed and emulated in Q-SYS Designer Software before ordering
- One fixed-price quote, no hourly open end
- Scales from one huddle room toward a campus without ripping out what you bought first
FAQ
Q-SYS Questions, Answered Straight
What is Q-SYS, in plain English?
Q-SYS is a software platform from QSC that runs commercial audio, video, and control on one processor called a Core. The jobs that used to need a rack of single-purpose boxes (a digital signal processor here, a paging controller there, a separate control system with its own programmer) all run as software on that one Core, and everything connects over standard Ethernet. You design the whole system in Q-SYS Designer Software before any hardware is ordered.
Do we need a separate programming company or control vendor?
No, and that is a big part of why we standardized on Q-SYS. The control engine is built into the Core, so the same GTZ installer who designs your audio also builds your touch-panel controls, in the same software file. A change later (a renamed zone, a new preset, a different closing announcement) is one phone call to the people who built it, not a ticket to a programming subcontractor in another state.
Can one system really run conference rooms, music, and paging together?
Yes. That is the whole point of the platform. One Q-SYS Core can run the boardroom video call, the zoned background music in the front of house, and the all-call page to the warehouse, each with its own controls and schedules. That is one system doing three jobs, not three systems pretending the other two do not exist.
What does a Q-SYS system cost?
The number moves with which Core the building needs and how many endpoints hang off it: loudspeakers, microphones, touch panels, cameras. And we do not know any of that until we have walked the building, which is why the walkthrough is free and the quote that follows it is fixed-price. By the time you see a number, the system already exists in Q-SYS Designer Software, so the number holds.
Does Q-SYS work with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet?
Yes. The Core presents the whole room to a computer as a standard USB audio and video device, so Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Meet treat it the way they treat a webcam and a speakerphone. No plugin, no special client. Behind that simple USB handshake, the Core is running echo cancellation tuned to your room, camera routing, and level control. And because the bridge is plain USB, changing meeting platforms later does not obsolete the room.
We might grow. Do we have to buy everything at once?
No, and Q-SYS is unusually good at growing gracefully. Because the system is software running on a Core, adding a room, a zone, or a whole wing later is usually a design-file change plus some hardware, not a rip-and-replace of what you already bought. A system can start as a single conference room and pick up paging and background music zones later on the same platform. Tell us where the business is headed on the walkthrough and we will size the design for it.
The enterprise tools we deploy and manage
See What One Core Could Run in Your Building
We will walk your rooms, look at your network, and show you which of these jobs one Q-SYS system could take over. Then you get a fixed-price quote from the certified local team that will design, install, and support it. No cost, no obligation.
Book a Free WalkthroughNot ready to put it on a calendar? Send us a message and we will follow up.