Case Studies

Conference Audio and Audio Network for Corporate Board Rooms

Simplified Audio Networking

When Integrated Vision Ltd. of Australia was chosen to design the conferencing system for the board room and multipurpose room at a major financial institution in Sydney, Project Engineer Mark Severn chose Aviom for its simple and flexible audio networking solution.

The system in the main conference room in each office features two AV-M8 Mic Input Modules mounted underneath each end of the large oval table at the center of the room (four AV-M8s total). The AV-M8s supply phantom power to 32 Audix M1245A micro condenser microphones. “Using the AV-M8s was an easy way to provide phantom power to the microphones,” said Severn. In the equipment room, two AN-16/o Output Modules pass the audio into a ClearOne XAP AEC system used in conjunction with EAW loudspeakers and Powersoft amplification.

While conference audio is an application where timing is not typically considered critical, Severn said Aviom’s low latency was crucial to the system performance. According to Severn, “A-Net was the only digital solution we tried that was fast enough to bypass detection and unwanted processing of the internal echo cancellers in the conferencing system. It simplified echo cancellation and worked as if we were using analog cables.”

Cost Savings and More

Using A-Net to move the audio also generated installation savings and benefits for Integrated Vision. Instead of 32 channels of bulky analog cables, two Cat-5e cables connect the AV-M8s to the equipment room, making for both a clean and a speedy installation. Connecting the system was so simple that Integrated Vision preinstalled the units in their shop to save time on site. When they took the equipment to the client, installation was a simple matter of connecting the gear.

The multipurpose room required a design that allowed the room to be reconfigured quickly and easily without physical repatching. The flexibility of the Pro64^® Series met that design requirement.

Floor pockets throughout the room are wired back to MH10 Merger Hubs in the equipment room. Conference desks equipped with Audix microphones are placed in the room as needed for a given event or session. Mic inputs are connected to AN-16/i-M Mic Input Modules, whose direct outs are connected to 6416i Input Modules. (The 6416m was not available at the time of this installation.) The A-Net cables from the 6416i modules are connected to whichever RJ45 floor jacks are convenient given the room’s configuration, and the MH10s are connected to 6416o Output Modules in the equipment room. As in the main conference room, analog outputs are patched to a ClearOne echo canceller and Powersoft amplifiers.

Because the Pro64 network allows inputs to be located anywhere in a system and modules to be connected in any topology, the room can be reconfigured without physical repatching, without reconfiguring software, and without complex redesign