Dialing Up a Robust Communication Solution

How a Fortune 500 company helped Dial clean up its corporate campus with a new Crestron control system.

CI Staff
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After Fortune 500 company Henkel acquired Dial to expand its personal care and household cleaning market, it enlisted the help of integrator Level 3 Audio Visual (L3AV) to outfit the sprawling corporate campus in Scottsdale, Ariz., with a Crestron control system to manage, monitor and control global video conferencing (VC) systems, campus-wide AV distribution, digital signage, as well as shades and drapes throughout the property.

“We researched who the client was and what their business focus was,” says Alan Rook, director of programming at L3AV, which is based in Mesa, Ariz. “We took their focus and goals as direction for our programming and design, and created processes using a simple interface to assist in the conservation of resources.”

To keep things in order, Crestron’s RoomView software provides room scheduling and resource allocation, remote control access to all touchpanels, maintenance and asset tracking, and device usage analytics across the campus, all from any web browser.

Feeding a Campus-Wide Installation Beast

L3AV fully integrated and connected 45 rooms: a 60-seat training room/lecture hall, conference rooms, executive boardroom, cafeteria, mezzanine and a focus room.

Using a dynamic source feed routed and controlled from the headend, L3AV delivered an array of media sources throughout, including 12 Polycom HDX 9000s Video Conferencing systems, eight Sony digital signage players, eight DirecTV satellite receivers, PC and DVD player, plus audio/video feeds from all other rooms.

A Crestron PRO2 Dual Bus Control System at the headend effectively integrates all multimedia technology into a single, centrally managed platform. In all conference rooms, Crestron TPMC-8T touchpanels provide intuitive user interfaces with one-touch presets that command an HD projector, 40-inch flat-panel LCD, PC, DVD player, PTZ camera, and ceiling-mounted microphones for video conferencing and corporate presentations.

Bouncing Around the Rooms

A central 12-unit Polycom Video Conferencing Codec (VCC) farm with an advance queuing system interface has resulted in significantly enhanced service levels to upper management with fast and reliable VC connections, and the elimination of pulling cables down hallways for impromptu VC meetings.

In keeping with Henkel’s eco-friendly mantra, all meeting rooms are configured for advance videoconferencing capabilities — reducing waste in travel, while saving on fuel and money. Meanwhile, the theater-style training room features a podium-mounted Crestron TPS-15L touchpanel, which controls two projectors, two PTZ cameras, side-by-side 10-foot screens, and microphones.

In the corporate café, a TPMC-8X touchpanel controls multimedia systems including a wide-format projector, two 40-inch LCDs for digital signage, two cameras, and a wireless microphone system used for reproduction and video conferencing. A TPS-12 touchpanel in the CEO’s personal boardroom provides one-touch control of another projector, 16 tabletop boundary mics for video conferencing, and a 52-inch flat panel, in addition to the standard presentation configuration.

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