Videoscope Provides High Tech Quality and Convenience

To design a new boardroom for their Toronto headquarters, the Council of Ontario Universities called on Gio Tan Design Associates. Gio Tan in turn contacted Videoscope to provide the audio/visual infrastructure.

Videoscope brought our expertise in System Design and Engineering to the project, to provide a solution as elegant as the room.

The Council required a sophisticated presentation and conferencing system. The head office houses the secretariat staff, but the council is made up of two representatives, (including the presidents) of each of the twenty member universities, located all over Ontario, from Lakehead to Windsor. Ease of communication was a high priority.

The first A/V challenge: to make the technology effective but unobtrusive.
Videoscope provided sixteen conference microphones: small items with big benefits. They are specially equipped to block RF signals (interference from electronic devices like cell phones and BlackBerries.) The mics are easily moved to accommodate seating arrangements.

Nine recessed ceiling speakers provide clear and even audio for any room configuration, with no
feedback into the many microphones. Videoscope accomplished this by programming the DSP, (digital sound processor), with a “mix minus” design. It automatically lowers the level of the speaker over an active microphone and raises the level for speakers farther away.

The second A/V challenge: to make complicated equipment easy to use.

A Crestron system, custom programmed by Videoscope, controls all the functions of the 42” plasma display and the ceiling mounted projector. It selects, and operates the sources: DVD, VCR, computer, or TV tuner, eliminating all the complicated remotes. It also selects the appropriate mics and speakers and controls their levels.

Simple, user friendly touch screens handle everything. Because the boardroom can be divided, two Crestron touch screens give independent control of all functions to each room.

To handle the Council’s need for phone conferences, Videoscope provided a Polycom audio conferencing system. Users can simply dial the number to initiate a conference call. It’s as simple as being on a speaker phone. However, all voices in the boardroom go through the microphones and voices from the remote locations are fed to the ceiling speakers. This ensures excellent sound quality for any number of participants.

“The Council of Ontario Universities boardroom is a perfect example of what a corporate boardroom should be:” says Videoscope System Consultant, Carlos Aita: “elegant and uncluttered with an underlying technical infrastructure that is complex and sophisticated. With the appropriate programming of the Crestron control system and the DSP, complexity turns into simplicity for the end user.”

With a qualified A/V design and engineering team, Videoscope has the expertise to provide elegant simplicity to any corporate boardroom.