Rising out of the Bullfinch Crossing section of downtown Boston, One Congress is a one-million-square-foot, office tower offering transformative experiences. The office tower is an architecturally stunning property created by Carr Properties (“Carr”). Towering 600-feet tall, this iconic building connects downtown Boston neighborhoods in a heavily transit-served site and global center. Totaling 43 stories, One Congress features breathtaking 360-degree views, overlooking the Charles River, Boston Harbor, North End, Financial District and Back Bay.
Similar to the other Carr owned and managed properties, wellness, sustainability, and luxury are the core strategies with diverse commercial spaces. Among these environments are a myriad of resimerical amenities. These spaces include a conference and event facility, fitness center, bike room, living room and library, landscaped terrace, exclusive in-building dining, lobby bar and retail.
Carr enlisted the expertise of John Carroll, chief technology officer at Nard’s Entertainment, leveraging his extensive expertise in control and automation systems to enhance several Carr properties. Carroll’s collaboration with Ilan Zachar, Carr’s Chief Technology Officer, brings to life Carr’s tagline of “More Than an Address,” while creating technology that lives behind the scenes and enables unique experiences.
Courtesy / URC
John Carroll Unifies AV Control with URC’s Total Control & High-Def Audio
With numerous subsystems and countless staff and consumer daily touches, Carroll knew that a single, unified, simple-to-operate control system was needed. With thoughtful design, Carroll
leveraged URC’s Total Control to blend control and automation across both interior and exterior environments.
This system featured the key products from URC’s portfolio including a variety of system controllers such as the MRX-30. With style and functionality critical, Carroll used nearly 20 URC touch screens and handheld remotes including the TDC-9100, with its 10-inch touch screen and the TDC-8600 featuring an 8-inch in-wall touch screen and voice control. High-definition audio plays a critical role across amenities and conference environments.
Carroll installed URC’s high-definition audio (HDA) with built-in DSP and extensive low-voltage features. The sheer size of this project called for a massive system including ten (10) HDA-1600 amps featuring 600 Watts per channel @ 8Ω; 1200 Watts / channel @ 4Ω / 2 x 600 Watts @ 70-Volt, and 96 kHz / 24-bit streaming high-definition audio quality.
Each zone supports a full 5-band parametric EQ, full ducking and paging event support, and
storage of up to 10 .WAV Files in each chassis. With powerhouse features and performance,
URC’s HDA was a natural fit for this installation. Given the scale of this project, the ease of integration available in URC’s Total Control platform was a key selling point and value component.
This project also included leading brands from the pro AV industry: Bose, Draper, Just Add Power, Legrand, Luxul, NEC, Panasonic, Sony, Vaddio, Danco, Vanguard, Zeeve — to name a few.
Courtesy / URC
Streamlined Simplicity
One Congress created some unique challenges from scale to complex subsystems.
Simplifying operation is critical; Carroll starts at the user interface. “We start at the URC keypad and design the interface with the fewest buttons, touches or voice commands, for this system to work,” says Carroll. Working backward, Carroll and his team from Nard’s craft the system with audio equipment, then video equipment. Regarding audio, Carroll continues, “HDA includes a comprehensive solution including built-in mixers… all native to Total Control.”
One Congress continues the Carr strategy of blending incredible outdoor spaces, comfortable amenities spaces and, in this case, impressive views of Boston.
