Extron NAV Pro Powers AV Services at WSSU Anderson Center

For the remodeling carried out at Winston-Salen State University (WSSU) switching solutions have been used, distribution, control and audio Extron.

In it McNeil Banquet Hall del Anderson Center, belonging to the Winston-Salem State University, A remodeling has just been carried out that includes the installation of an audiovisual system that has included the solutions of Extron. Thanks to the improvements carried out, paid bookings have risen and have allowed the festival hall to become a major profit center for the university.

This center is the headquarters of different academic departments and serves as a conference center. It has small meeting rooms, another large one for parties and an auditorium with 400 Equipped seating to host professional theater productions. The conference center can be reserved by the campus community, government agencies, companies, non-profit organizations and business associations.

For new AV system, Chris Screen, WSSU Technology Support Analyst, worked with professional AV integrator Winston-Salem Recursav to respond to the challenges posed by the center. Although they had an empty room to start from scratch, They had to come up with an AV design that could be installed with minimal alteration to the existing walls and ceiling, but that met the need to use multiple screens on each wall to offer good viewing angles to attendees seated around the dining room tables in the room..

The project also included additional video screens in the lobby area, at the entrance to the party room, which required drilling into existing concrete structures for cable routing. To simplify the installation of cables through existing construction, AV signal distribution over IP via cable Ethernet CATx was the chosen option. Recursav selected a series of switching products, distribution, Extron control and audio to meet system design requirements.

Los Professional AV over IP NAV encoders and decoders from Extron form the centerpiece of the video signal path, using the Ethernet cable infrastructure of 1 Gbps to send 4K video signals and RS-232 control to the Anderson Center conference centers, including McNeil Banquet Hall, the Dillard Auditorium and its lobbies.

Existing Ethernet cable plant also distributes audio, based on network connectivity Dante. The AV over IP system manager Navigator configure the remote points of the NAV encoder and decoder, in addition to managing matrix switching between AV inputs and outputs through an IP network switch.

Signal Distribution with Extron

NAV Pro provides several advantages that make it the right choice for the Anderson Center. Carries video signals, Audio and control over standard CATx Ethernet cabling using off-the-shelf Ethernet network switches, saving installation time and cost, and allowing AV content to be routed from any source to any destination.

The university intends to add more remote points to the building's AV over IP network in the future. NAV Pro will make those expansions a seamless process.

Projectors and display

The party room has five ceiling-mounted laser projectors pointing at two screens on the south wall, two in the north and one in the east. This last, with a single screen, is considered the front part of the room, But event organizers have the flexibility to make any wall the focal point depending on the number of attendees., arrangement of the dining tables or when there are two screens necessary for the presentation.

Projectors receive HDMI content and RS-232 control signals from NAV decoders mounted on each projector.

The lobby hallway at the entrance to the party room serves as a waiting area, where attendees can socialize, register and collect your cards before entering the room.

Two flat screen monitors 65 inches on the lobby wall offer informative messages, entertainment, real-time samples of room presentations or images of what's happening inside, captured by two cameras placed on the north and south wall. NAV decoders mounted behind each monitor provide HDMI content and RS-232 control signals to the monitors.

To maintain the concept that the room design is flexible for all types of events, A NAV encoder has been placed on a wall plate next to each of the five projection screens in the party room.

Regardless of which screen the presenter chooses as the main screen, There is an encoder nearby where you can plug your laptop or other HDMI content source into. The wall plate NAV encoders are also located near the two chambers on the north and south walls., allowing cameras to send their HDMI content to the AV over IP network.

AV connections and streaming

The party room also has bidirectional NAV AV over IP connectivity with the Dillard Auditorium, increasing the capacity of an event with 400 seating. Content displayed in this space can be sent to the auditorium monitors or the auditorium can provide content to the party room.

A streaming media processor with dual SMP recording 352 receives HDMI from two NAV decoders, as well as from two analog audio channels with DSP. The WSSU uses the SMP 352 to record and stream events from both the party room and the auditorium. This allows events and conferences to be disseminated to larger audiences beyond the limits of the two spaces..

Remote participants can also join events interactively through web-based software codec applications such as Zoom. Software codecs work on AV system computer, which is connected to the AV over IP network through a NAV encoder and decoder.

Clear and powerful sound

The IP network also distributes the audio, based on Dante and AES67 network connectivity. Sources include program sound from presenters' laptops, sent via wall plate NAV encoders.

Eight microphones provide audio from presenters and attendees. Sixteen ceiling speakers SoundField in the dining room they operate with a four-channel amplifier NetPA con 100 W per channel.

A NetPA amplifier with two channels of 100 W operates six SoundField speakers in the waiting area. Both amplifiers receive their inputs from the Dante audio network. Hearing aid transmitters on the north and south walls connect to the Dante network through wallplate Dante audio interfaces AXI 22 AT D y provide full room coverage for attendees with portable hearing aid receivers.

Touch screens

Event organizers and presenters control the AV system with five touch screens TouchLink Pro of 10 inches, the walls of the party room have been placed, next to each projection screen.

Intuitive GUI controls AV system on/off, raising and lowering of projection screens, Route any AV source to any display and set up streaming and Zoom sessions.

When entering a keyword on the home screen, AV technicians access a series of technical GUIs to perform advanced system configuration. Touch screens work in conjunction with an IPCP Pro xi control processor, an IPL EXP expansion interface and the AV over IP Navigator system manager to control AV system functions.

Using Extron Control for iOS, control system mirrors touch screen GUIs over WiFi to an iPad, allowing wireless control from anywhere in the room.

Recursav designed and implemented the touch screen GUIs using Global Configurator Professional and the software GUI Designer.