The Tech Challenge

Constructing the banquet hall improvements presented all of the typical challenges of a remodel. For the new AV system, WSSU’s Technology Support Analyst Chris Screen worked with Winston-Salem based AV integrator Recursav, LLC to meet those challenges. Although they had a blank slate of an empty room, they had to devise an AV design that could be installed with minimum disturbance to the existing walls and ceiling, while meeting the need for multiple screens on each wall to provide good viewing angles for people seated around dining tables throughout the room.

Plans also called for additional video screens in the lobby area at the banquet hall entrance, which required drilling through existing concrete structure for cable routing. To simplify cable pulls through existing construction, AV over IP signal distribution over CATx Ethernet cable was the logical choice.

The integrator selected a range of Extron switching, distribution, control, and audio products to meet system design requirements.

The Design Solution

Extron’s NAV Pro AV over IP Encoders and Decoders form the backbone of the video signal path, using 1 Gbps Ethernet cable infrastructure to send 4K video and RS-232 control signals throughout Anderson Center’s conference venues, including the McNeil Banquet Hall, the Dillard Auditorium, and their lobbies. The Ethernet cable distributes the audio, relying on Dante audio network connectivity. A NAVigator AV over IP System Manager configures the NAV encoder and decoder endpoints and also manages matrix switching between AV inputs and outputs through an IP network switch.

Signal Routing and Distribution with NAV Pro AV over IP NAV Pro provides several advantages that make it the right choice at Anderson Center. It transports video, audio, and control signals over standard CATx Ethernet cabling using readily available Ethernet network switches, saving installation time and expense, and allowing AV content routing from any source to any destination. WSSU plans to add more endpoints to the building’s AV over IP network during future budget cycles.

Projectors in the Banquet Hall

The banquet hall has five ceiling-mounted laser projectors aimed at two screens on the South wall, two screens on the North wall, and one screen on the East wall. The East wall with the single screen is considered the “front” of the room, but event organizers have the flexibility to make any wall the focal point of the room to suit varying crowd sizes, dining table layouts, or when dual screens are needed for a presentation. The projectors are fed HDMI content and RS-232 control signals from NAV decoders mounted atop each projector.

Flat Panel Displays in the Lobby

The hallway lobby at the banquet hall entrance serves as the “pre-function” area, where attendees can mingle, register and pick up badges before going into the hall. Two 65″ flat panel displays on the wall of the lobby display informational messages, entertainment, real-time views of presentations screening in the hall, or views of what is going on in the hall captured by two cameras located on the North and South walls of the hall. Extron NAV decoders mounted behind each display supply HDMI content and RS-232 control signals to the displays.

AV Connections Between Venues

The banquet hall also has bi-directional NAV AV over IP connectivity with the Dillard Auditorium, increasing event capacity by 400 seats. Content from the banquet hall can be sent to displays in the auditorium, or the auditorium can supply content to the banquet hall.

According to WSSU’s Screen, the latter option came in handy during a heavily attended strategic plan presentation conducted by the Chancellor. The event took place in the auditorium, which filled to capacity. Multiple studio-caliber cameras connected through a live production switcher to a NAV encoder allowed the overflow crowd to watch from the banquet hall, as well as streaming to YouTube via an SMP 352 streaming media processor.

Commenting on how Extron NAV technology makes this possible, Screen says, “To get that kind of AV distribution capability with just one network cable pull? I’m so impressed with that.”

Streaming, Recording & Software Codec Conferencing

An SMP 352 Dual Recording Streaming Media Processor receives HDMI from two NAV decoders, as well as two DSP-enhanced analog audio channels. WSSU uses the SMP 352 to record and stream events from both the banquet hall and the auditorium. This allows events and conferences to be disseminated to wider audiences beyond the confines of the two venues.

Distant participants can also join events interactively via web-based software codec applications like Zoom. The soft codecs run on the AV system’s PC, which is looped into the AV over IP network via a NAV encoder and decoder.

NAV Wallplate Encoders Located Near Each Projection Screen

In keeping with the concept of making the room layout flexible for all types of events, a NAV wallplate encoder is located next to each of the five projection screens in the banquet hall. No matter which screen the presenter chooses to use as the main screen, there is an encoder nearby where they can plug in their laptop or other HDMI content source. NAV wallplate encoders are also located near each of the two cameras on the hall’s North and South walls, allowing the cameras to feed their HDMI content into the AV over IP network.

Clear, Powerful Sound in All Venues

The IP network also distributes audio, relying on Dante and AES67 network connectivity. Audio sources include program audio from presenters’ laptops, delivered through NAV wallplate encoders. Eight wireless mics provide audio from presenters and attendees. Sixteen SoundField ceiling speakers in the dining hall are driven by a NetPA four channel amplifier with 100 watts per channel.

A NetPA amplifier with two 100-watt channels drives six SoundField speakers in the pre-function area. Both amplifiers receive their inputs from the Dante audio network. Assistive listening transmitters at the North and South walls connect to the Dante network via AXI 22 AT D Dante audio interface wallplates and provide full coverage of the room for attendees who are issued portable auditory assistance receivers.

AV System Operation Through Touchpanels

Event organizers and presenters control the AV system at five TouchLink Pro 10″ touchpanels on the banquet hall walls next to each projection screen. Intuitive GUIs control the AV system power, raise and lower projection screens, route any AV source to any screen, and set up streaming and Zoom sessions. By entering a password at the home screen, AV technicians access a set of technical GUIs for performing advanced system configuration.

The touchpanels work together with an IPCP Pro xi control processor, an IPL EXP expansion interface, and the NAVigator AV over IP system manager to control all AV system functions. Using Extron Control for iOS, the control system mirrors the touchpanel GUIs via Wi-Fi to an iPad, enabling wireless control from anywhere in the room. Recursav designed and implemented the touchpanel GUIs using Global Configurator Professional and GUI Designer software.

A Flexible Space

On his first walkthrough of the McNeil Banquet Hall, WSSU Chancelor Elwood Robinson was inspired to post a panoramic photo of the space to his Facebook page with the comment, “The transformation of the Anderson Ball Room into a ‘State of the Art’ teleconferencing and technology center is amazing. I was blown away during my visit this morning!”

If the banquet hall’s packed booking schedule is any indication, those in the academic community and in the surrounding Winston-Salem community are blown away too. The hall hosts everything from educational symposiums to awards ceremonies, business meetings, weddings and memorials. First class food catering service and sophisticated multimedia capabilities make the McNeil Banquet Hall a natural choice for those seeking a convenient, cost-effective event space.

The post Extron’s NAV Pro AV over IP Powers WSSU Anderson Center Meeting Spaces appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Those same questions are bound to persist as some businesses start welcoming their workforce back to the office, and brand new ones are bound to arise from those who have to deal with a hybrid workforce.

We consulted with two collaboration and meeting room audio experts to answer some common concerns and help decision-makers choose or improve systems for their own spaces.

What would you tell an IT pro or some other kind of tech decision maker about pursuing speakers for conference rooms & huddle rooms?

Nancy Knowlton, Nureva advises them to take their time and consider carefully the user experience that they want to deliver.

“We’re seeing many organizations saying in desperation, ‘we just need something!‘ and I would suggest that this kind of short term thinking may result in a viable long term solution…but more than likely, it will not,” Knowlton says.

“We’re working with various clients who are in the process of ‘fixing’ their rooms after groups of disgruntled users have complained about the experience of being remote while others are in rooms. The expensive solutions they bought just weren’t viable for the spaces they were installed in.”

Knowlton stresses that just about anyone can put up with a minor annoyance for a day or two — but when repeatedly encountered, these issues prevent constructive meetings. These interruptions do have a long-term negative cost associated with them.

Deciding what problems you actually need solutions for

“Room acoustics involves the physical impact of the design of the room (square, rectangle), room materials, and other factors impacting audio performance,” says Bob Archer, audio enthusiast who has written about consumer electronics for CE Pro and is THX Level I certified.

Above all, Archer advises everyone to consult with an acoustician for a base-level design on new systems. But for low cost or testing existing systems, he advises they buy an acoustics kit to control some of these factors.

There are lots of great adaptive, flexible, “beamforming” microphone solutions out there, but it’s your job to centralize that.

“Glass walls and dry walls tend to make audio quality sound like a tin can. If you’ve experienced this, you know that the offending space is highly reflective. So all those reflective surfaces take away from speech intelligibility.”

In higher ed and large spaces, challenges occur from changing number of people in a room. People are good sound absorbents, and if you have a few in a large space, the acoustic properties are dramatically different than when the same space is filled with many people.

If you walk into a room, clap, and hear an echo, there are acoustical issues which could detract from speaker performance.

Realistically, you want more of a “dead space” than a “lively space,” or one with any noticeable echo or “tinny” sound.

Need another thing to compare your spaces to?

“Cineplexes are designed for high audio & video performance,” Archer says. That’ll give you an idea of a space that’s designed to reproduce audio in an intelligible way. Guitar Center’s recording demo rooms also provide this, and it might be easier to access those by appointment rather than a cinema.”

Measure the properties of various meeting rooms so that you’ll understand what you’re dealing with. If you are in a reverberant environment, consider what some of the additions to that space could be which might absorb the sound and improve it.

“The overarching theme here is that you really should consider this is a process and you’re going to hear feedback from users, Knowlton says. “Something that may have been state of the art only two years ago might not be so now.”

What about remote or hybrid workforces — what are the most important collaboration audio quality issues they are facing?

“During quarantine, it’s always been the need for a solid network,” Archer says. “Good networks support the highest available bandwidth. This does play to IT pros’ strengths.”

There’s no way around the network. Even with ISP-mesh product lines, the most fundamental thing you can do is improve your bandwidth.

It’ll both improve your employees’ work and their leisure experience if they invest in better home networks.

But beyond the network, one of the big areas in the electronics market is headphones. There are many investment headphones which cost a reasonable amount which isolates audio and feature built-in microphones and algorithms which improve the input audio. It’s low impact and accessible.

We really have three employee groups to focus on here: those coming back to the office for good, those at home for longer, and those in between.

Webinar: How to Ensure Productive Video Meetings with Quality Audio

“Ask your staff for their insight into problems they’ve faced. It’s not just the quality of the audio in the office, it’s also the audio experience from employees’ homes,” Knowlton says.

Companies are starting to set standards for home products. There are many who are frustrated with the headphones they’ve used; they’re too tight, etc.

“In our own office, we have sit-stand desks, if you want, you can press a button and up  pops the desk. Employees can stand during meetings. I am not sure many organizations have thought about the changed circumstances for staff,” Knowlton says.

“You need to spend time thinking about the ergonomics from the home perspective. Size and scale of products is important. You want to have a level of respect for employees’ home aesthetics and space and recognize it is different from the office, is priced right.”

The post Solving Collaboration Audio Quality Problems for the Mobile and In-Person Workforces appeared first on My TechDecisions.

However, many organization fail to understand the importance of quality audio within those environments. Every videoconference requires audio, yet many integrators and customers focus on the video aspect and neglect to consider the quality of the audio deployment.

Consider this – in a videoconferencing session where a user must share their screen to the participants, suddenly those high-quality cameras are no longer in use. When this occurs, the audio components of the system become paramount to intelligibility – if the user can’t be heard it doesn’t matter much what is on screen.

Click Here to Register for This Webinar on July 9th at 2:00 PM ET

On top of that, many meetings are done over audio only. None are done using only video with no sound. So why is it that the video side of videoconferencing is so highly touted, while audio is often a secondary consideration.

The truth is that the right audio system should be the first thought when implementing a solution, and the last thought when holding a conference. When all is well, audio is crisp, and participants can understand one another, no one thinks of audio. However, when video is clear but audio is unintelligible, it completely derails a meeting.

In this combined Commercial Integrator and TechDecisions webinar, sponsored by AVI-SPL and Shure,  users will learn why good quality audio matters. We’ll also provide resources for what can be done to achieve it.

Attendees will gain valuable knowledge on acoustics and speech intelligibility and learn best practices for executing well-designed conference rooms and meeting spaces. We’ll cover five common audio issues that affect AV and IT integrators, and offer tips and tricks to avoid these pitfalls.

This webinar will also introduce Shure’s new Microflex® Networked Loudspeaker, MXA Linear Array Microphone and innovative mute button accessory, as well as IntelliMix® processing and Designer 4.2 software.

Join us on July 9^th at 2:00 PM ET to get an exciting overview of the new ecosystem solution for AV conferencing!

The post Webinar: How to Achieve the Right Audio Quality in Meeting Spaces appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Cameras focus on whoever is speaking, switching seamlessly from presenter to audience member, when required. Inconspicuous microphones pick up high-quality sound. Recording or conferencing begins automatically, on schedule, or by voice command. If a presenter walks around the room, a camera automatically follows them.

Content displaying on a computer is also seamlessly incorporated. And completed recordings transfer automatically to a desired location.

This is not a meeting room or lecture hall or training room of the future. All the technology exists today to make this a reality.

Whereas earlier attempts at hands free rooms were costly to implement and required sophisticated custom programming, the solutions available today come pre-programmed with all the smarts built in.

As a result, they are designed to integrate with an array of devices from other manufacturers so that you are not locked into one vendor’s products.

What makes this all possible?

The latest AI technology, for starters, which includes facial detection, motion sensors, and natural language understanding. Many of these new technologies have become ubiquitous (and therefore lower cost), because they have been developed for the consumer market.

Think of Siri or Alexa for voice recognition, motion sensing cameras for home security and smart home products that activate lights and thermostats when night falls and temperatures drop.

Innovative companies are now incorporating these technologies into solutions designed for the commercial AV market for education, corporate, and government use cases.

Let’s look at some examples:

For huddle rooms and smaller automated meeting rooms that may be used by one or more people for video conferencing, cameras are now available that automatically frame based on the number of people in the room.

If there’s only one person sitting in a large space, the camera detects this and zooms in automatically, so those viewing will see the person up close rather thana lot of empty room space. Without such advancements, a person used to have to pan, tilt, and zoom a camera manually, from a touch panel.

Now the camera does this automatically by using motion and face tracking. This frees meeting participants to focus on the meeting and eliminates the need for a dedicated camera operator.

In larger spaces filled with a lot of people, an automated camera can find a handheld microphone in the audience and zoom in on the person holding the mic for a close-up shot.

And in lecture halls and training rooms or any meeting space with a presenter, auto-tracking cameras can smoothly track a person walking around. Intelligence built into the camera’s firmware can detect faces and motion which improves the tracking performance so much that it can reproduce the experience of a live camera operator, without the cost or need to hire and retain staff.

For the meeting or lecture or conference that requires more than a single camera or camera angle to adequately capture the relevant participants, automated solutions are also available today.

Sample applications include multiperson panel discussions or a council chambers meeting or a town hall Q&A. Intelligent automated production solutions can switch from camera to camera to follow the dialog and when combined with the smart cameras described above, give the experience of a fully staffed production crew.

These automated meeting room solutions also can combine two camera feeds into a single side-by-side shot or picture-in-picture with content in the way a sophisticated production switcher might, but without the need for a person to operate it.

Read Next: Building Control & Automation ROI: Time, Cost Savings and Efficiency

Automatic start/stop times can be assigned so that meeting participants do not even have to push a single button when the meeting begins.

The need for greater access to video conferencing, video streaming and video recording in institutions was evident well before COVID-19 sent people home, as video has become the common language for corporate communication and remote learning.

Now that people have become even more familiar and adept with this form of interaction in recent months, the demand for rooms being equipped with cameras and simple conferencing will be greater than ever.

The good news is that equipping hands free rooms with automated camera solutions is simpler and less costly than ever before.

The simple experience with close-up views that people have become accustomed to at home can now be deployed enterprise-wide for efficient communications once people can return to their offices for work.

The way we work and learn is evolving. With improvements in bandwidth, easy-to-use software conferencing solutions and automated camera solutions in meeting spaces, it will be much easier for people in remote locations to join meetings or classes and feel like active participants. This will improve productivity and bring people closer together without costing a lot.

Automation in AV will enable more rooms to be equipped with video and give a better end-user experience without requiring dedicated AV staff in room after room. This is a big win and comes just at a time when end-users will be demanding it.

The post Making Your Hands Free Room Fully Automated with AV appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Now that workers have proven they can be productive while working at home, businesses will quickly move to a hybrid model and more workers will be remote than ever before.

What’s next? In Barco’s most recent research on “The Future of Meetings,” they found a shifting preference for business technology that enables flexible, remote work environments and intuitive devices that allow users to collaborate seamlessly from anywhere they want.

Bring Your Own Meeting (BYOM) is an extension of BYOD, allowing people to use familiar conferencing platforms more effectively. IT departments prefer standardization when it comes to unified communications platforms. Often, when outfitting multiple meeting rooms, the IT team will prefer a uniform AV solution across them all.

6/10/2020: Move Over BYOD, It’s Time To Bring Your Own Meeting – Click here to register!

This can lead to long waiting times, bad connections, poor video quality, and struggles to join. Not all UC solutions will be compatible with these uniform AV systems. Users prefer their to utilize devices they’re familiar with, so if those devices aren’t compatible with the AV system in meeting rooms it poses a problem. They want to work with the technology of their choice, they avoid working with equipment that they don’t understand or find difficult to operate. They prefer conferencing solutions that appeal to them, are easy and intuitive to use. If they can’t do so, they’ll simply ignore the meeting room equipment in favor of the platform that makes them comfortable.

Bring Your Own Meeting allows people to host a conference call using their preferred platform, whether it be Teams, Webex, Zoom, or any number of alternatives. This webinar, sponsored by Barco and presented by Commercial Integrator and TechDecisions, will explore how BYOM initiatives help organizations address the many dimensions of a highly effective Digital Workplace strategy, and how integrators and their customers can get started on creating a BYOM environment.

Click here to register for this webinar of June 10^th at 2:00 PM ET, and learn more about how Bring Your Own Meeting can work for you!

The post Webinar: Move Over BYOD, It’s Time To Bring Your Own Meeting appeared first on My TechDecisions.

Do you know when their meeting rooms are being used? Do they know how many people are in them when they are used?

We spoke with Warren Fernandez at Microsoft to learn more.

MyTechDecisions: What are the benefits of gathering data in meeting rooms?

Warren Fernandez: Imagine if your meeting room could be more than just a static place to facilitate work? When we think about smart spaces, we’re not constrained to focus only on the physical room itself, we actually take a people-centric approach and think about both the people who use the space and the people who own the space.

What sort of meeting room data should be collected in these kinds of spaces?

WF: The actual data can vary, but generally, you want to start with a minimal set of key measurements which inform the way a space owner or operator can maximize productivity of room users. Temperature, lighting, air quality, whether or not there’s someone in the room and how many are, etc. It all has to be done securely, too, while protecting privacy.

Learn More: Preparing Your Meeting Rooms for Teams: A Free Webinar

How can decision-makers make better choices about meeting rooms?

WF: There’s some obvious cost saving opportunities to, say, tying a room’s temperature data into a building’s HVAC system. But utilities are the tip of the iceberg. Typically, the most expensive asset in a room is the people inside it. So any action an operator can take to improve how efficient the people in the room can become will pay dividends in the long run.

For example, having the ability to detect when CO2 levels in a room are rising – something that can reduce productivity in humans – and being able to send an automated command to an HVAC system to increase airflow to that room.

Or, having the ability to know that a room that’s designed and budgeted for up to 20 people at a time but ultimately learning it is only used by a maximum of only 7 people presenting an opportunity to subdivide.

For more information, visit the Teams Devices Marketplace.

The post Why You Should Collect Meeting Space Data (And What to Do With It) appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The Decision: HQ Migration

With this new office came the need for a full-service AV integrator, with honored SLA’s and quality standards of integration. That is why Benchmark Electronics and JLL Construction hired Level 3 Audio Visual to complete their brand new headquarter’s AV technology integration.

Benchmark Electronics and JLL (the project manager) discovered Level 3 Audio Visual via Google search. They were seeking out their options with regards to the most suitable AV full-service integration company for their relocation of the Benchmark Headquarters.

With the extensive skill set and quality management that Level 3 Audio Visual provides, Benchmark proceeded to select Level 3 Audio Visual to complete the AV design, engineering, and integration for this new headquarters in Tempe, Arizona.

The project managers and design engineers at Level 3 Audio Visual furthered simplicity and cost savings in each space by shifting all room systems over to a Polycom/Skype for Business partnership.

This allowed the rooms to natively integrate into Skype for Business allowing meetings to be done without the requirement of a laptop to drive the call. Additionally, the company reduced and or eliminated the hardware requirements and custom programming.

The Solution

JLL provided an RFP outline AV spec, with dedicated manufacturers. Level 3 provided the custom design build solution.

The multi-purpose room has two movable walls, and the last movable wall spills out into the break room, as well as spillover space for all-hands meetings. The AV system works for the third last room, but also works for the front of the room.

The conferencing system is via MXA Shure Ceiling Mic Arrays, paired with a QSC Q-SYS DSP.

Level 3 was able to commission that with no dead zones at the patrician wall (movable walls). Users can speak normally and can hear clearly with 75 people in the room. 85-inch Samsung Displays.

Related: Break Room Video Games: The Best Titles & Consoles for the Office

Screen innovations bezel free screens with NEC laser projector are featured. At the front of the room, highly flexible NPR.

Audio conferencing having 50+ engineers on a design conference call is a unique benefit. There is no podium or gooseneck mic, it is a clutter free space.

Planar interactive 2×4 65-inch displays. There was a bunch of coordination with RSP, the architect, and engineers at JLL to design the interactive video wall capabilities.

It’s a 12-foot by 8-foot steel frame that pivots on an access and it turns 180-degrees to display products on one side and the interactive video wall on the other.

The theory is to utilize it to bring customers into the innovation center to look at the physical products on the shelf. Then employees can physically turn the video wall and utilize it for product mock ups, marketing presentations, or customer engagement.

The Impact to HQ Migration

Benchmark Electronics moved to Tempe for the economic development effort the city has shown. It paid off, as the innovation center was extremely crowded for the grand opening, allowing Benchmark to show off many products physically and via the video wall.

Benchmark executives were so impressed that they have requested more video walls of these types in offices nationwide.

See more pictures here

The post From Huddle Rooms To Video Walls: Benchmark Electronics Migrates to a New City and A New Office appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The Tech Decision

John Nunez, Global Audio-Visual Manager at White & Case, and his team, were charged with integrating solutions that would make it simple to book and release conference rooms, automate environmental settings to maximize productivity, and enable easy wired and wireless presentation within them. It was critical to empower the AV team to resolve any technical issues remotely to minimize downtime.

AVI-SPL worked with John Nunez and his team to create a workplace filled with the most advanced and reliable room scheduling, presentation, room control, and collaboration tools available.

White & Case selected Crestron as the backbone for audio and video distribution as they felt it was the best in the industry. With this installation, the firm wanted to create a simple and unified solution where employees could have the same experience walking into an office in New York or an office in London.

Elegantly appointed, the space is designed to help foster creativity and collaboration. The firm was committed to deploying the latest workplace technology to aid in that effort.

The Solution

Crestron room scheduling solutions feature an easy-to-use user interface, enabling employees to book meeting spaces easier and faster than ever before. Since implementing Crestron room scheduling and creating a more simplified solution for their employees, room utilization continues to grow over 20% annually.

With AirMedia, employees can walk into a room and instantly connect their laptops and tablets to the display and start presenting. Many times when clients come into the space, they do not have the right adapters or cables to connect. AirMedia resolves this dilemma to provide users with an IP address that allows them to connect seamlessly.

Each meeting space features a preset mode that’s automatically activated when someone enters. Immediately, and all at once, the room displays power on, and lighting and shades adjust according to the amount of ambient light to create the optimal environment for every meeting.

Using Crestron Fusion, system managers in the Global Technology Services group are immediately aware of any technical issues in the meeting spaces and can remotely resolve them, minimizing disruptions and maximizing productivity. Additionally, the group has initiated lunch-and-learn sessions to ensure all employees are completely comfortable with how to use the meeting room technology.

The Impact

Management is so pleased with the Crestron solutions that they’ve even opened their meeting spaces for use by clients, further maximizing room utilization. With the most advanced and reliable collaboration tools available, allowing for a seamless experience.

“We’ve gotten rave reviews. The clients that we have come in, when they come in with their presentations absolutely adore the fact that we have this technology,” says Nelson Martino, Audio Visual Support Specialist at White & Case LLP.

Fueled by the universal enthusiasm for the meeting spaces in the New York office, John and his team are updating over forty other spaces with Crestron technology each year. In fact, the New York meeting spaces now serve as the global standard for build-outs and expansions. More than 280 such spaces are already in use, with more to come.

“Conference room technology plays an important role in enabling our lawyers and clients to collaborate from all over the world. Crestron has enabled us to raise the bar on standardization, operation, and support of our conference rooms globally,” says Joe Nunez.

The post White & Case Meeting Room appeared first on My TechDecisions.

The Tech Decision

The typical customer of One Way Media Solutions is a house of worship or commercial venue. However, the company is built on a willingness to deploy its expertise wherever it’s needed, and that’s how it happened to be called in to do all the AV work for a government conference room project that had already been undertaken by an electrical contractor.

This particular conference room is located in the heart of the California wine country, in the city and county of Napa, and belongs to the Napa Valley Transportation Authority. Like every government entity, NVTA needs to be accountable for every penny it spends of the taxpayers’ money. So the first thing Masaki Liu and his One Way Media Solutions team did was to take a look at the control solution the electrical contractor had originally in mind for the NVTA conference room. They quickly realized that they could accomplish all the same objectives for “close to five figures less” using RTI instead of the brand originally specified by the contractor.

The Solution

But there’s more to the story than just saving money. “Any time we need a control system we’re typically using RTI,” says Masaki Liu. “And that’s because RTI allows us to interface with almost every piece of AV gear in commercial installations. We haven’t run into a problem yet.”

That’s pretty impressive considering that gear from more than half a dozen vendors was used in the NVTA conference room alone, including a BSS BLU networked audio system, a Panasonic PT-DZ870 projector and AW-HE40SKPJ9 camera, a Shure DIS-CCU Central Control Unit, a Black Magic Design BMD HyperDeck Studio Pro 2 video recorder, an Alzatex DSP254B-U display, an Atlona AT-UHD-PRO3-88M switcher, and Infocus INF6522 touchscreen

The RTI XP8 control processor and CX10 automation touch panel for the board of directors’ tabletop were selected to exert full control over all of this gear and do so seamlessly for public board meetings and regular staff meetings. In addition, the system needed to interface to Granicus Streaming systems.

According to Masaki Liu, the biggest challenges to interfacing this diverse gear were some discrepancies between published control specs and current firmware for one of the components, which One Way Media Solutions resolved by working directly with the manufacturer. On the other hand, the RTI gear was notable for solving project challenges rather than creating them. For example, Masaki Liu says, “RTI’s development of commercial drivers for BSS has made programming so much easier with access to deeper layer functions that weren’t accessible through RS232 commands.” One more reason RTI was “a clear choice for functionality and value.”

The Impact

That’s how the NVTA sees it as well. With the system in place, a single person can now control video, audio, a 16-microphone discussion system, audio and video capture and streaming systems, and a talk timer, all from one screen (see below).

According to the feedback Masaki Liu has received, the system has been working very smoothly. And he looks back on the project with a sense of satisfaction. “This installation shows that RTI has what it takes to succeed in high-end commercial installations. The drivers they’ve created for various brands of equipment make a huge difference. You could do it all with RS-232 commands, but the programming time is cut by 75 percent because of those drivers that RTI has developed. We’re able to show status, active, level, and quite a bit of other information from the RTI processor. And most people would be afraid to even approach something like that.”

The post Napa Valley Transportation Authority Conference Room appeared first on My TechDecisions.

When I heard about the space, I had to check it out (you can check it out, too, just click on the video above).

It got me thinking about the way we discuss technology projects prior to installation.

As a technology decision maker, you’re probably used to the traditional relationship with an integrator or installer when it comes to implementing new technology. You create your request for proposal, send it out to bid, choose the installer that best suits you, and start the build.

Often, the installers you choose from will get on the phone with you and/or travel to your building to meet with you about what you’re looking for. You’ll hash out details both major and minor and, before long, the project is off and running.

Now, at first thought it might seem strange to visit the integration firm at their space, rather than the other way around.

It’s certainly not the way things are typically done. However, many of the best decisions are those that go against the traditional way and introduce a newer, improved way of doing things. That’s what Carousel Industries hopes for with executive briefing centers.

“For existing customers, we kind of go through any updates in our service offerings, and any updates to the company that we may want to give,” says Jason Albuquerque, Chief Information Security Officer for Carousel Industries.

“If they’re a net new customer we literally go through the entire gamut, soup to nuts, of what the company is about. Our mission to be client-focused, and getting them to know our company.”

After that, Carousel Industries flips the script and asks the customer to tell them about their business. What drives the business? What generates revenue? What holds the company back, or creates headaches to those missions?

In a crisp conference room outfitted with the types of technology Carousel installs for its clients, the conversation steers not toward what the company can do for its clients, or even what the clients need done, but instead simply what the clients are trying to do as a business.

“The benefit of that is we want to understand their business drivers, and what outcomes they’re looking for,” says Albuquerque. “In order for us to be that true technology partner, and be able to integrate into the business, we need to learn about how they manage their business. Not only from an IT perspective, but also from a business perspective. That way we can align our technology and services to their needs.”

Music to my ears, as it should be for any technology manager.

At My TechDecisions, we focus on the business of technology – I constantly stress to technology managers that the business case is what make a technology work, not the technology itself.

If you go in with an expectation that a specific solution will fix your business, you’ll come out disappointed.

Often, that technology will fix a small gap, but does nothing to solve the long-term strategy behind the problem. It seems that Carousel Industries subscribes to the same point of view.

“That’s why we talk about those business drivers,” says Albuquerque.

“It allows us to see, and really consume, the long-term strategy of the company. To say that this is a short-term fix, but let’s think about the long haul. Maybe you need something more enterprise-level, or a different technology altogether.”

The beauty of it is that Carousel can help customers put investments into the organization with a plan. Instead of instant gratification, the company puts a premium on the long-term plan.

Meeting at the executive briefing center helps to create that connection, have that discussion, and come up with a plan that suits the end user to the best of Carousel’s ability.

It’s an interesting take – certainly there is more pace in flipping projects and moving on, but the long tail of setting up partnerships is where Carousel hopes to truly make an impact.

However, you’re not only going to the executive briefing center to have a conversation…

As I mentioned earlier, that can be done over the phone or on your own turf. Where the EBC takes it to the next level is two-fold: not only does it serve as an experimental space for Carousel to try new things, but it serves as a showcase for customers to see the technology Carousel recommends in action.

“From each one of the technology stacks, we run the gamut,” says Albuquerque.

“We have best-of-breed partners that we leverage – the Crestrons of the world on the AV side, Cisco and Avaya from the Unified Communications side, if you look at the data center side we’re partners with the VMWares and Microsofts of the world, from the networking technology obviously the Ciscos and Junipers, and from the security side the Fordinets and the Cisco security side of the house. We cover every technology vertical out there aside from application development.”

Depending on the customer, an end user might head to the EBC during the bid process to discuss the possible partnership, or during the sales process to get a better idea of the potential technology to utilize, but customers really go in during that relationship-building stage rather than the transactional stage of the project.

The EBC is meant to be strategic, to foster a relationship, and then to show off the technology. As the meeting is being set up, customers will talk about what they’re interested in.

Carousel Industries will then build the team to present – focusing on areas of need and bringing subject matter experts that focus on the areas (security, data center, AV, etc.) that the customer needs. As a technology manager, you’re speaking to exactly the people that you need, and the ones that know what they’re talking about.

Afterwards, the customer can see the technology in action, whether through the automated presentation system in the meeting room, one of the data centers housed in the facility, or at the fully-staffed, 24/7/365 Network Operation Center just down the hall from the meeting room.

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“Typically coming out of these meetings there are outcomes that are put together,” says Albuquerque.

“It could be anything from getting you a deeper meeting on security, and scheduling an on-site meeting with our security experts, to getting a quote after sitting in the meeting, realizing the needs, and then being able to architect a solution to that need. Normally it’s either going right to a quoting process or going to a deeper dive at the customer’s organization with our subject matter experts.”

Technology is complex. Years ago that complexity meant hiring an integrator to install the wires, boxes, and such necessary just to make a display screen work. Today it means hiring an integrator to design a system that makes every piece of technology work together.

The technology at every company is a business in and of itself – wouldn’t you want a business partner instead of simply an installer to help you set that up? Spaces like the Carousel Industries executive briefing center offer a conduit to that partnership, and it’s well worth the trip to get the service, in my humble opinion.

The post How Executive Briefing Centers Can Benefit Technology Managers appeared first on My TechDecisions.