Installation Uses Crestron e-Control™ to Operate A/V Remotely via LAN or Internet
The definition of “presentation room” evolved another step recently when Ceitronics completed its integration of cutting-edge audio/video systems for a global Fortune 500 technology company at its new headquarters in the heart of Silicon Valley.
The Ceitronics installation in the remodeled executive office building on the company’s campus includes advanced presentation systems in eight boardrooms, the main conference room and seven other meeting rooms. This infrastructure allows the international firm to hold real-time meetings with clients, managers, and employees at its offices around the world.
The system uses technology from Crestron to provide remote control of all presentation and playback devices, including VCRs, stereos, DVDs, and satellite receivers. The Crestron e-Control™ system communicates over a fiber-based LAN (local area network) or the Internet through Internet protocol (IP). (See How Crestron e-Control™ Works in a Corporate Boardroom).
Crestron e-Control is a unitized system that can make any device an Internet appliance and every computer a remote control point. Crestron e-Control allows connection and control of most projectors, A/V and presentation equipment, and environmental devices such as lights and window shades, via a LAN/WAN or Internet connection.
All meeting rooms on the technology company’s headquarters campus are connected to its LAN. The meeting rooms are interconnected to a machine room installed by Ceitronics containing all the audio/video playback equipment, and to a central server and control room, which enables users to gain access to applications running on a server, and provides access to the Internet.
The new campus is part of the worldwide rollout of a sophisticated client-server network currently being installed on the desktops of all the company’s employees. By running Crestron e-Control over the network, each workstation within a server group can become a control point for A/V devices or a source of program for presentations.
Ceitronics integrated new and renovated buildings with the lastest technology
Ceitronics’ $1 million fast-track A/V and integration project, initiated in August 2000, was completed in January 2001. It is part of the remodel of the Fortune 500 company’s new headquarters in Silicon Valley. The remodel integrates renovated and new buildings on the campus with the latest technology and equipment. The A/V consultant on the project was Tom Corbett of Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc.
In the main 20-seat conference room on the ground floor of the executive office building, Ceitronics installed a full array of video, audio, computer projection, and two-way videoconferencing. Ceitronics also wired presentation systems in seven auxiliary meeting rooms and offices on the third and fourth floor of the building. All cabling was wired by Ceitronics except fiber optic, which was installed by the company’s own technicians.
“Of all the new technology that we put into this new headquarters, the best piece is the technology that allows you to use a LAN or the Internet as a pathway,” said Ceitronics Project Manager Ron Whigham. “The concept is that anybody can control an AV presentation from any location using a LAN or the Internet. The Crestron e-Control apparatus we programmed for the A/V equipment is linked to their LAN, and is accessible by all their workstations.
“Crestron e-Control used on this system or any LAN has the ability to control remotely-located sources from many multiple points, or designate myself the source and send it to other locations who can then control me,” said Whigham. “It’s a complete network, back-and-forth. I can be the source, I can be the destination, and I can control all the appliances on either end—down to the point of Play, Rewind, etc.”
Anybody can control a presentation using a LAN or the Internet
“From a pure audio-visual standpoint, if I’ve developed my presentation and saved it on the server in Silicon Valley, I can access it from any workstation within my server group,” said Whigham.”Or I can go to New York to make a presentation, and I can then access my presentation source in Silicon Valley from the meeting room in New York that I am actually making my presentation in, and control everything
remotely. I don’t have to tote a computer around with me to make a presentation.”
Whigham said the remote control concept is similar to another project that Ceitronics installed last year. “For the City of Santa Clara, we used the Internet and LAN to connect their own computers to a common network. Each person can use his or her own computer to access and control the A/V systems,” said Whigham.
“It’s the Crestron e-Control technology that gives us the ability to get on the Internet and use that as a pathway between devices in a building or across a campus.”
Crestron e-Control shows graphical Play, Fast Forward, Rewind and Pause buttons, which an operator clicks on with a mouse, on a workstation monitor or on a Crestron touchpanel inside the meeting room connected to the LAN. Video cameras or projectors in a conference room can be controlled by an operator in the room, or played back from a workstation in another city.
Anatomy of the rooms
The main conference room and seven meeting rooms and boardrooms in the executive office building were each equipped by Ceitronics with a digital video projector and a large screen, or a large video monitor. The conference room has a full surround-sound system, with two side channels, channels in the front, center and rear, and a subwoofer. Any format of video and data can be presented to a group in each of the rooms.
The conference room installation makes videoconferencing easy. Three video cameras send views of all conference participants in the room to the other conference site. Each camera is equipped with pan-tilt-zoom capabilities linked by Crestron e-Control. If videoconference participants in Silicon Valley want to zoom in on a speaker or a display in the technology firm’s office in New York, they can use e-Control to manipulate the camera in the New York meeting room. The system features picture-within-picture videoconferencing, so that a chart, slide, or film can be shown within a smaller window on the screen.
Ceitronics also provisioned a portable videoconference unit that can be rolled into any meeting room and plugged into the Crestron e-Control network for an instant videoconference. The backbone for audio- and video-streaming equipment has been wired, and the equipment itself will be installed at a later date.
“This corporate A/V system has all the hallmarks of a great presentation system,” said Whigham. “All of the components are present—state-of-the-art video, a great sound system, Crestron e-Control that lets you use the Internet as a pathway, unitized switching for up to 16 media devices, videoconferencing, and a backbone that can be easily expanded. It’s all here.”
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