The flexible space allows the rooms to be combined or divided into a number of configurations. At the same time, this concept represents a real challenge in terms of the media technology installed, which of course has to be seamlessly adaptable to the room configuration selected. Moreover, this must normally be possible without specialised technical personnel.
The contractor for the concept, planning and installation of the complete audio and video technology as well as programming of the remote control (AMX) was the communications technology specialist Kilchenmann Telematik, a company with some 140 employees based at three locations in Switzerland. External support was called in for the complex programming of the five DME64N systems installed: Andreas Baumann, managing director of Mediensystemhaus in Zurich, was entrusted the task of providing sophisticated scenarios for every imaginable room configuration.
These can be easily recalled via AMX touch panels during everyday conference proceedings. The user merely has to press a button in order to activate a complex background signal processing setup consisting of routing, equalisation, delay compensation, dynamics processing and many other components, which is fully implemented in the DME64N units.
Three separate DME64N units are responsible for three rooms which together cover some 650 sq.m. The five rooms in the approximately 300sq.m additional area are served by a further two DME64Ns. The combined DSP performance of the five DMEs, which are connected to one another and to the other audio components via an EtherSound audio network, ensures optimum acoustic conditions in every situation - regardless of whether a conference with a complicated microphone installation or a video presentation are taking place.
The complete setup comprises four type MLA8 eight-channel microphone front ends and six Yamaha digital mixing consoles, an LS9-16, an LS9-32 and four 01V96 V2s. Further features of the system include comprehensive wireless technology by Shure.
Today, a professional audio solution for a conference centre must work perfectly in standard situations even when no engineer is sitting at the desk. At the Swissotel Zurich Convention Centre, this is ensured through sophisticated programming by Kilchenmann of the AMX room control, operated by touch panels which are installed in each of the eight rooms, as well as the DME units which are controlled using the touch panels via RS232. The significant decisions with regard to the result are made by the system depending on the activated room configuration and the required scenario. The system, for example, "knows" where in the room the speaker giving the presentation is located, controls the priority and propagation delay of the individual loudspeaker groups and assigns the manual volume controls on the touch panel to the correct signal outputs. The video/data projector, projection screen, lights and air conditioning are also made accessible to the user in accordance with the selected configuration.
The programming by Andreas Baumann with the aid of Yamaha's "Designer" software of the five DME64N units for the Swissotel Zurich Convention Centre took several weeks. During programming, Baumann employed several user modules in the Designer, in order to keep the layout as clear as possible. These user modules are independent switching blocks which, in contrast to the many preset signal processing options available in Designer, can be freely assigned by the user to the required modules, for example for equalisation and dynamics processing. As
