Involve, one of the UK’s leading systems integrators specialising in the design,
implementation and support of visual collaboration solutions, has recently delivered
a 2-room meeting space solution based on Symetrix Radius AEC technology to
British commercial television studio, ITV Central.
ITV required a solution to make their meeting spaces more flexible and productive
whilst maintaining an easy-to-use front end. “We have a regular need for remote
comms,’ explained ITV’s Ian Glen. “We put two programmes out every day with
reporters based in multiple locations. At the end of the day we hold a debrief
conversation from those same multiple locations and we were finding that the
phone system we were using was unreliable and we had great difficulty in hearing
those at the remote end. Our head of news instructed me to look into a solution and
that led me to Involve. Initially we were only looking at kitting out a single room,
but the solution fitted our needs so well that we decided to go for two rooms.’
Involve provided a solution based on a Symetrix Radius AEC (acoustic echo
cancellation) system supplied by Symetrix’s UK distributor, CUK Audio, who worked
closely with Involve throughout the design process. “ITV required a solution that
would enable those in the meeting space to communicate intelligibly via a range of
VoIP services including Google Hangouts with reporters and other staff in remote
locations,’ explained CUK’s Simon Druce who helped specify the system.
The table in the meeting space needed to be kept as free and clean as possible, so
a wireless tablet is used to allow room users to dial and adjust volumes via the
Symetrix ARC-WEB browser interface. The tablet communicates with a wireless
access point which is in turn connected to the Radius AEC device. Outputs are
connected to an amplifier and loudspeakers. The Radius AEC mixes all the remote
sources to deliver clean, highly intelligible audio to the local room user whilst the
AEC inputs process the hanging mics in the room to provide the same high quality
audio to the remote user.
Ian Glen agrees wholeheartedly. “The Involve team were a pleasure to deal with –
sympathetic, efficient and quick to react, they found us the solution we needed.
Staff are very happy to go into a room and use it. It’s made the process of group
calling so much more efficient and a much nicer experience generally. Previously it
could take ages to sort out a meeting, and even then, some people ended up sitting
with their backs to the mic and the audio quality was poor, which is stressful. Now,
everything is ready to go in minutes, we have proper coverage of the room and the
audio is crystal clear at both ends. We’re delighted.’
For further information, please visit www.cuk-audio.com and involve.vc
