The main meeting room at Killik & Co's Mayfair office, known as The Music Room, is a sumptuous, wood-paneled space which hosts a variety of events from seminars and presentations to regular lunchtime briefings and meetings
Over recent times the company's technical support department had been upgrading certain software elements of its IT infrastructure such as going from Microsoft Lync 2010 to 2013 and concluded that in a world of unified communications, its existing AV provision was not adequate. Killik & Co's senior support analyst, Henry Selzer, followed up an earlier speculative contact with Audiologic with a firm interest in upgrading the audio provision in The Music Room to better service its video-conferencing and close consultation began.
The first part of the brief required provision for a wireless conferencing microphone system. Historically, Killik & Co had committed time and resources to bringing staff from its branches into Mayfair for meetings and was now determined to reduce the need for this by using high quality hardware to enable broadcasting (and recording) of events via the Microsoft Lync infrastructure. The second requirement was for local sound reinforcement for occasions when The Music Room hosted events or presentations when larger groups of staff were present.
Audiologic recommended a Shure Microflex Wireless system and set up a demonstration. With the direct involvement of experts from Shure and Audiologic the event took the form of an actual meeting, which was recorded and enabled the client to see the system in full operation and also conduct a post-demo appraisal of the experience.
A conclusion was swiftly drawn that the Shure system was exactly what was required. The go-ahead was given and the system was installed. This comprised four Shure MX410LP/C Cardioid Gooseneck microphones (with base transceivers) two Shure MXW6/0-Z11 Boundary transceivers and one Shure MX150B/ C-TQG Cardioid Lavalier Microphone. All were chargeable from an MXWNCS8 Networked Charging Station. A Digital Automixer with Dante (SCM820-UK-DAN) completed the picture.
A Sennheiser LSP 500PRO self-powered, wireless portable speaker was chosen as the solution for the local sound reinforcement. As an aesthetically pleasing, hassle-free PA system it offers excellent sound quality and was complemented by a Sennheiser ew335 G3-GB wireless handheld microphone system which integrates neatly into one of three dedicated slots in the rear of the speaker's housing.
Henry Selzer, senior support analyst at Killik & Co comments, "We have come a long way when it comes to broadcasting meetings throughout the firm. The addition of the Shure and Sennheiser systems has been the final piece in a complex project to improve unified communications across all Killik & Co locations.
Andy Lewis, sales and marketing manager at Audiologic adds, "The reaction of the staff at Killik & Co tells us everything we need to know about installing the right technology for the demands of the job."
(Jim Evans)
