Whether you’re an experienced commercial installer or your business is primarily centred on the residential sector, when the chance comes up to work on a commercial project it will most likely fall into the corporate space. In the eyes of a custom installer looking to expand into other markets, it is probably the easiest way to start tackling largerscale projects and eventually move into the niche areas of education, hospitality or even places of worship.

Today’s boardrooms require a wide range of technology, products and systems to meet the demands of the 21st century. Often, the skills set required for a corporate installation is vastly different from that of a typical home theatre, so what should you be mindful of when working on one of the most common facets of the corporate space – a boardroom?

According to AMX technology director Graham Barrett, most boardrooms will act as the ‘performance space’ for a company or business so it needs impressive technology to match.

“It’s where an organisation puts on a show for existing or prospective customers. It often functions over and above a meeting room for internal sessions, so identifying whether or not that boardroom is going to be used for an external customer base is important as well,” he says.

Being able to simply and reliably deliver content into the space is also vital.

“Content is king. Technology is constantly evolving so it’s a significant challenge to ensure that the end user can always get their content delivered to their audience. Anyone should be able to walk into a boardroom, plug in their media device and deliver it to the audience without any problems.”

Sean O’Carroll, business development manager at Emersive Technologies (the local distributor of Savant Systems) adds that it is essential to ensure the client’s requirements are met accurately.

“It’s very easy for an installer to provide a stamped-out solution, but you need to listen to what the client wants and ensure you provide a system with the requested functionality,” he says.

As Savant is based on the userfriendly Apple technology, Sean says this goes a long way in simplifying the control of technologies in a boardroom, so even the most technophobic people can operate it easily.

“Apple has changed the way that people interact with a touch panel and Savant makes the technology simple to use, straight out of the box.

“The integrator can also customise the look of the interface to suit the client’s environment. For example, Savant’s user interface provides all of the general categories on the left-hand side of the screen and the services related to the category that you choose on the right-hand side. It’s broken down into categories such as Look, Listen and Environment.”

As boardrooms become more sophisticated, there is a growing trend to integrate video conferencing technologies to reduce the cost of flying members of a company interstate for a meeting. But this can also uncover another problem. “Although most displays can support lots of different signal formats, delivering content to more than one display could result in analogue signals being directed at digital displays,” Graham says.

“AMX has a range of Enova signal management systems which ensure different types of media can be effectively delivered to the audience. Basically it’s a boardroom in a single box – the only thing that you need to add is the signal sources and displays.

“Enova is also fully compatible with every control panel that AMX produces. It is a very smart system from the input through to the output.” While many of its products can be used in either a commercial or residential application, Sean says that Savant also has a specific integrated controller within its range, known as the SSV-1000, which is ideal for boardroom or conference room applications.

“It has four HDMI inputs and a component input, as well as the ability to control two serial devices, IR devices, a relay and a GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output). You can run a flat panel screen, lighting, a video conferencing arrangement, or drop a screen if there’s a projector in the room,” he says.

Savant’s new Smart Telephony range effectively fills another void in the boardroom environment by unifying two previously separate systems. Savant Telephony responds to automation and control events providing users with customisable communication, automation and control in a single architecture. It offers several handset options, including wired and DECT models, and an integrated family of diverse communication endpoints including Apple’s range of telephony enabled iOS devices.

The flexible and scalable telephony solution is based on Savant’s PBX Server, which supports up to 72 endpoints, as well as the normal features such as call forwarding, call waiting, caller ID, etc. Given the sheer amount of technology that goes into a boardroom, Sean also notes that appropriate cabling infrastructure is important.

“Sometimes a lack of attention is paid to the appropriate cabling infrastructure for the room. Ensure that you lay the cables in the right location to provide the flow of information from Point A to Point B.”

Last year, national provider of communications and technology solutions Videopro was highly commended in the Best Commercial Project category at the CEDIA Asia Pacific Electronic Lifestyles Awards. In this instance, Videopro complet for TechnologyOne in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley.

“The company required a new headquarters that would reflect its forward-thinking approach to software, which embraced leading-edge technology concepts,” Videopro account manager Alex Russell says.

The installation covered three levels, ranging from breakout areas, a recreational area known as the Village Green, meeting rooms, presentation rooms and large-scale software demonstration rooms.

As the reception area is the first impression for visiting clients, it contains four displays playing TechnologyOne signage behind clear glass panels, creating the illusion that the imagery is floating through the glass. The waiting area features a horizontal video wall using seven ultra narrow bezel LCD panels in a row, each of which is used to display video content highlighting the key vertical markets TechnologyOne operates in.

“The company’s product is software, so they had a high demand for HD projectors and screens that would show their product in the best light,” Alex explains.

“In the seminar rooms, consultants demonstrate software solutions. The requirement was for bright, HD projectors that would be able to display software solutions in their native resolution in clear detail. Operation is via an AMX touch screen with an intuitive user interface, enabling guest presenters to easily operate the system.”

The rooms support full speech reinforcement via wired and wireless microphones, playback of TV, DVDs and several PC patch points around the room for maximum accessibility. The rooms can be used as two separate standalone operations or, taking away a single wall partition, combined to form a large presentation space.

Alex says the boardroom is a clean, clear space where AV equipment needs to be invisible unless called for. This space is operated via an AMX wireless touch screen that can be removed from its wall-mounted docking station.

“We worked closely with the architect for the boardroom to make sure that everything was integrated and bespoke within the room so the touch panels sat neatly in the joinery,” he says.

“Two presentation rooms operated via an AMX keypad also feature HD projectors; ensuring smaller groups can view software content without compromise.

“There are also adjoining meeting rooms that can be used individually or combined to form one large space for company meetings where basic audio visual services are required with intuitive control.”

Alex says TechnologyOne was pleased with the end result.

“Technology and display information is key, whether it’s for internal signage, advertising for clients, or presenting information. Achieving all of this and ensuring it is non-intrusive or that it impacts on the bespoke design of the offi ce was a challenge that was successfully overcome.”

THE FINAL WORD

While it can be challenging for a custom installer to cross over from residential to commercial projects, the possibility (and more importantly, the opportunity) is definitely there.

“There’s a lot of money to be made in the commercial sector. It’s quite a big step to go from home theatres to boardrooms, even through the equipment looks similar in a lot of ways,” Sean says.

“The basic skills set is effectively the same – you need to understand the AV equipment that you’re controlling and you need to understand how the customer wants to use it. Listening and providing the functionality the client wants is key – and being able to accurately advise is important as well.”

Graham adds that while the concept of boardrooms is very old – being a room for the board to meet in – the reality is that these spaces are required to be high tech in order to function to their full potential.

“The technology that is installed in a boardroom has to be extremely capable, flexible and powerful in terms of what it can do. Equally, it has to be incredibly simple so the average person can set up the system so it performs quickly and easily.”