The RPSGB, the professional and regulatory body for pharmacists in England, Scotland and Wales, wanted to modernise its conference facilities, which bring together key people from its offices around the UK, and found the appropriate medicine in a collaboration between beyerdynamic UK and systems integrator Martin Dawes Solutions.
A fully integrated modular AV system allows the RPSGB's spacious main Council Chamber in London to be switched in minutes from a round-table boardroom to a 250-seat presentation theatre or divided into two separate spaces, each with its own AV facilities. The system also integrates smaller meeting rooms nearby for maximum flexibility.
The team specified a full videoconferencing system linking the three RPSGB locations, allied to a beyerdynamic MCW-D 50 wireless conference microphone system. Equipment portability and easy room re-configurability were designed in from the start, greatly helped by the use of the MCW-D 50 wireless delegate units with built-in loudspeakers.
Microphone outputs - routed into a Biamp Audiaflex DSP mainframe and Nexia units - provide echo cancellation for the videoconference lines plus full processing and routing, complemented by Ethernet-based Extron switching and Crestron touch control.
System outputs are routed into an eight-channel Bittner 8x100 amplifier, driving JBL Control 28 wall mounted loudspeakers and MP212 foldback cabinets, while a Crestron TPS4000 touch panel and Crestron AV2 Processor provide comprehensive, intuitive control over the system.
Martin Dawes' team completed the installation with a pair of rear projection screens powered by built-in Sanyo PLC-XP51 4000 lumen and PLC-XF60 6500 lumen projectors, Sony EVI-D100 PTZ 3-CCD video cameras and PCS-G50 video conference codecs, and Extron matrix switchers.
"The real challenge with the audio was the high number of different elements involved," said RPSGB audio visual support manager Martin Bagley, "including handheld and tie clip microphones, video conferencing mode with echo cancellation, and wireless microphones which are also required to be recordable onto multiple media. The MCW-D 50 system's flexibility, and the power of the Audiaflex and Nexia units, were crucial in achieving the results we wanted."
(Jim Evans)
