| beyerdynamic Conferencing Systems are the Talk of the Town | |
| By the end of 2005 more than 50 councils in the UK had installed beyerdynamic digital wireless conference and voting systems, keeping company with other prestigious customers such as the Bank of England, Metropolitan Police, Ministry of Defence (MOD), Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS), General Medical Council, Financial Reporting Council, as well as blue chip companies such as Deloitte Touche and the newly opened Welsh Assembly. The beyerdynamic MCW-D is a totally wireless digital conference system that utilises Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) transmission and reception in the 2.4 GHz ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) band. Security is of paramount importance and the beyerdynamic system is protected by an impressive 128-bit encryption code, together with an added 8-digit alphanumerical PIN-code. Matt Nettlefold, product manager of the conference and presentation division for beyerdynamic in the UK, is enthusiastic. “Every customer has a unique requirement and it’s my job to find the right solution to suit them from our extremely wide range of products. Of course some of the customers we supply, and some of the security issues, I can’t discuss in detail. It’s enough to say that the MCW-D system can handle whatever challenges may arise.” Installer David Cottam of Show Connections, East Sussex outlined their customers’ situation. “We had a bit of a problem on our hands in that the Financial Reporting Council simply do not have any form of fixed seating or table layout for the room which, by means of movable partition walls, is itself of a variable size, and anything from 10 to 50 people to could turn up. The client made it clear that they did not want any form of visible wiring and also that several executives were ‘softly spoken individuals with a tendency to bury their heads in paperwork”. Confronted with potential speech intelligibility problems, the beyerdynamic MCW-D 50 system provided the most sensible solution. David Cottam continues. “The room is often used in theatre mode with a single top table. Using the conference microphones as desktop microphones, we’ve been able to make use of the line output from the beyer ‘base station’ as a feed into the existing rig, adding a general ‘lift’ throughout the room. The flightcase style storage units also act as the battery charger/conditioner, so the act of putting the desk top units away at the end of the day ensures that the system is always ready for use – the staff don’t even have to think about it!”  Another installation at the Guild Hall in Durham posed a similar problem for Blaydon Communications of Newcastle. In this case the City Council were very concerned that their Grade 1 listed building shouldn’t come to any harm. Dave Chapman of Blaydon Communications explained. "There was absolutely no way you could wire up anything on a permanent basis. The system from beyer was designed so as the council would simply wheel in the storage case and set out the wireless units as and when required".The Guildhall total solution consisted of an MCW-D 50 15 way system with Opus 381 condenser radio mics fed through a beyer Mix10 ten-channel mixer unit into the MCW-D 50 controller, allowing questions from the floor to be heard via the inbuilt loudspeakers. All audio was then routed out to Amena flat-panel speakers. The MCW-D 50 unique design provides both storage and charging solutions in the form of the new CC 10 Modular Transport System. This self-contained unit can charge up to 10 microphones per case, providing between 14 and 24 hours of constant operating time between charges.  The Wandsworth Town Hall system, developed and installed by Sound Advice of  Hampshire, England, included sixty individual MCW-D-200 phase 4 conference stations, linked to an auto-follow camera system and display. “The council chambers included many other areas and rooms, but because the beyerdynamic system is so versatile we were able to develop bespoke software to allow large video displays to show the delegate speaking” said Jon Hunnisett of Sound Advice. “This also opened the way for webcasting the meetings live across the internet. For the hard of hearing we have also added infrared broadcasting to the system.”According to Deputy Council Leader Maurice Heaster, the Council Chamber now has 21st century facilities that sets the standard for other authorities. “Anyone who has ever attended a Council meeting will have experienced the frustrations of trying to keep up with events in the Chamber. Now we will have a system that offers perfect audio-visual clarity that overcomes the design limitations of our public gallery“. MCW-D conferencing systems have the ability to operate up to 65,000 microphone units with up to 9 bi-directional data channels sending and receiving audio data simultaneously. Ensuring future-proof connectivity, it is possible to interface with external devices via the integral TCP/IP Ethernet or RS-232 serial interfaces, as well as hard disk recording systems such as the unique beyerdynamic Steno-S conference and recording software. During meetings, Steno-S records the proceedings on to a PC. The operator sets up an agenda prior to conference and marks comments or points of interest in real time. When the meeting is over the audio can be burnt directly to a CD, together with any PowerPoint presentations or files such as Excel or Word. The MCW-D conference system allows integration with other digital audio network or control systems like CUE’s Wi-Fi touchscreens and the new beyerdynamic Simultaneous Interpreting System (SIS) which has been developed so that two interpreters can work side by side, using either headsets or headphones and microphones.  The SIS 1202 station features a large, easy readable display. Volume, treble and bass can be adjusted individually. The unique EarPatron® feature provides intelligent ear protection for personal hearing safety. There are also individual MUTE ‘cough’ buttons which temporarily interrupt transmission until the buttons are released. The handy Service button links the user directly to the technician in charge, without bothering any of the participants of the conference. The modular control unit can manage a maximum of 12 interpreter stations allowing translation into 12 different languages. The basic version of the control unit is equipped with one original channel and 4 foreign language channels. The interpreter stations are connected with Cat.5 cables. The SIS system can be configured via an integrated touch screen or optional Windows® software.If you are entering the conference market, beyerdynamic certainly seem to have a system that interfaces well with other products and the support team offer complete solutions to problems with technical backup whether your are installer or customer. |
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| Blaydon Cooms, Newcastle Dave Chapman: dave@blaydoncomms.co.uk |
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| Show Connections David Cottam d.cottam@showconnections.co.uk 01892 653185 |
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| Sound Advice Jon Hunnisett, 01329 221791 jon@soundadvice.co.uk |
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