Adelaide Uni’s AMX No-Touch Solution
10 July 2020
Last year System Integrator, ProAV South Australia, deployed a range of AMX by HARMAN video distribution and automation solutions to create immersive and user-friendly meeting and conference rooms at the University of Adelaide.
The University of Adelaide is the third oldest university in Australia and is a member of the Group of Eight, a coalition of Australia’s foremost research-intensive universities. The university, which is ranked in the top one percent worldwide, has four campuses throughout Australia and one in Singapore. Recently, the administration decided to build a series of immersive ‘no-touch’ meeting rooms for the Adelaide campus, enabling users to turn on the AV systems with the press of a single button on a touch panel or keypad.
The university wanted to make the new rooms capable of displaying the contents of a local desktop or laptop on a large LCD connected to an Open Pluggable Specification (OPS) PC. Additionally, the system needed to offer support for desktop conferencing from sites like Jabber, Skype or Zoom. In order to achieve these goals, ProAV deployed a range of AMX solutions, including NetLinx NX controllers, Hydraport connection ports and Solecis digital switchers.
“The implementation was easy and fast due to the simplicity of the system, and we were able to deploy the Harman solutions in multiple spaces with minimal resourcing,” said a uni spokesperson. “The Harman system meets our requirement precisely, and we don’t have to worry about dimming lights, lowering screens or turning equipment on or off to start a meeting. All of it happens automatically.”
In each room, the integrators deployed an AMX NX-1200 NetLinx Integrated Controller, a programmable network appliance specifically designed to control AV systems and building technology, with support for multiple analog and digital formats. An AMX Solecis digital switcher offers five user-connection points plus simplified local control for routing signals to DXLink and HDMI outputs.
An AMX HydraPort Connection Port provides control and connection options for the rest of the components in the room, which include a built-in OPS PC, a USB camera, USB microphone and a large format LCD aligned to the overall room size. For the project as a whole, ProAV South Australia deployed 15 AMX NX-1200 NetLinx Integrated Controllers, 11 HPX-1200 HydraPort modular AV ports, four HPX-600 HydraPort six-module ports and 15 Solecis SDX-510M digital switchers.
“The system at the University of Adelaide required an intuitive and sophisticated control and AV distribution system,” said a spokesperson, ProAV South Australia. “AMX by HARMAN AV solutions offer unparalleled flexibility, performance and ease-of-use, so the decision to choose HARMAN was easy.”
Each system is configured so that when a user enters, he or she triggers a motion sensor that prompts the NX-1200 controller to automatically set the AV system to its default OPS PC ready state. A user who wants to display a laptop can simply plug an HDMI Cable into the HydraPort, and the Solecis auto-switches the LCD to the correct setting. Once the laptop is unplugged, the system returns to its OPS PC default. For desktop conferencing, users can choose to connect the microphone and camera to their laptops or the built-in PC, which is connected to the Hydraport via USB.
MadisonAV: 1800 00 77 80 or madisonav.com.au
ProAV Solutions: 1300 287 253 or proavsolutions.com.au
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