The ultimate accolade for any lighting, sound and image control installation is to see the users instinctively operating the systems, without any training. Corporate AV Integration took just three days to install an audio-visual and control system at the Samsung head office in Bryanston.

At the hand-over, Samsung were happy to see that the four training rooms they’d kitted out were already being used and that trainers were taking to the technology, which was owing to the elegance of the technical solution.

The brief was to equip the four training rooms in the same style as Samsung’s Main Building. The rooms have movable tables – as opposed to a fixed lecture hall configuration – and this posed special challenges. The solution required that maximum flexibility be allowed for trainers and to take into account that the rooms would be used by many different trainers; therefore requiring a system that was fool-proof and simple to operate. In short, Corporate AV Integration wanted to create something elegant.

The first call was to go for the new Crestron AirMedia. The AirMedia is a presentation product that allows you to make presentations from just about any device (be it mobile or PC laptop) fast and easy. As the Crestron website notes, “There are no wires to hook up, no complicated settings to configure and no AV or control system is needed. Simply connect via the local Wi-Fi network and start sharing content from your portable device.’ Corporate AV Integration then installed a fixed popup input for VGA and HDMI on each lectern.

For simplicity and to eliminate multiple buttons, always-on systems were chosen. 7″ Crestron TSW-750 touch panels were mounted on each lectern. The TSW-750 wakes up with a touch and then automatically starts a conversation by asking whether you’d like to use AirMedia, or a laptop wired connection, or switch the lights on and off. Choose the AirMedia option and it automatically switches on the nine-screen Samsung video wall and routes audio visual via AirMedia.

The two larger training rooms can accommodate about 40 people and Corporate AV Integration wanted a neat voice amplification solution. They installed a Beyerdynamic GM 304 podium microphone. This mic is always on and provides a subtle, natural lift to the voice. A mute button on the Crestron TSW-750 gives you the option to turn it off. A Beyerdynamic Opus 650 wireless microphone is also available in each room, should presenters want to walk and talk.

Further to the above, Corporate AV Integration combined the control and signal routing in the two main rooms by installing a Crestron DMPS-300-C. This unit handles all microphone input mixing, as well as AV routing to the two 9-screen Samsung video walls. Lighting control in each room is done via Crestron universal dimmer units. Two 2 channel-amplifiers ensure superb audio reproduction via 16 ceiling speakers.

The two smaller training rooms are identical, for control and switching Corporate AV Integration fitted a Crestron DMPS-100-C digital media unit in each. These smaller training rooms also have built-in microphone mixing capability, as well as built in amplification. The video signal is sent via HDMI output to Samsung 4-screen video walls. There are 4 ceiling speakers in each of the smaller rooms.

In addition to kitting out the four training rooms, Samsung also requested the option of music playback in the joint pause area; eight ceiling speakers were strategically placed and connected to an always-on amplifier. A 3,5mm stereo input jack was provided in order to have a range of devices (laptop, phone, media player) to be connected.

One of the reasons that Corporate AV Integration was able to complete the project in only three (albeit very long) days was due to meticulous planning and the fact that the venue had been thoroughly prepared by Infinitude Design, a space planning and interior design company. They have catered for all AV requirements, core drills, and reinforced dry walls. When the time came to install there were no surprises; all respective tasks were executed diligently and all possible eventualities had been considered. In the end elegance has been achieved by creating a minimalist technological solution: all equipment is housed in the custom built lecterns, or in the ceiling.