ADENA Hack: How to bundle AREC Media Stations with third-party products for conference rooms?

In our previous post, we looked at several ideas of how you could bundle AREC products to achieve the best results. But what about products from other manufacturers? Let’s focus on that this time, using LS-410 in a conference room as an example from our side.

The LS-410 is the perfect example to describe these ideas, thanks to its many interfaces. Starting from the front panel, there are 2 USB ports that can be used for all kinds of devices. For instance, to export your videos or record directly on a flash drive, plug it into either of these ports. To easily control key features of the Media Station, you can connect a USB numeric keypad that is supplied with the station or use any other keypad. Connect a computer mouse with USB, or an interactive display with a USB and HDMI from the back panel, to use the station’s GUI. You could also use these ports to connect a camera or a microphone to capture audio and video.

Every standard conferencing AV hardware can be connected to the LS-410. For example, you could start by adding a hardware videoconferencing processor, like a Yealink MCore Pro Mini-PC, Poly G7500, or Avaya C190. This will let you record and stream conferences on the Media Station, mix them with other sources, and display them through any of the station’s outputs. 

And what better to mix these conferences with than a wireless content-sharing system, like Barco Clickshare or Mersive Solstice, letting every attendee beam their work without worrying about cabling? The station’s loop-through output will make sure that this content is visible to all, and you can output it in the highest quality on a big display, like the Clevertouch Impact Max 2. 

Add the remaining video sources by USB or network - LS-410 can work with 4 video sources simultaneously, allowing you to add multiple PTZ and ePTZ cameras from AREC or other manufacturers to capture every meeting participant.

The station’s support for Dante Audio makes it simple to connect professional audio inputs like Shure MXA920, while an array of balanced and unbalanced line/mic inputs ensures easy setup with analog microphones, like RADA Duo.

Finish the solution by personalising it for the user - add a controller, such as Q-Sys Core 510i, and show commands for all devices on its compact screen accessory, TSC-101-G3.

And that is just one of the many ways you can deploy LS-410 in conference rooms. You could also use the station as a webcam for any conference system through NDI|HX, HDMI-to-USB converters such as our RADA Bridge, or through the same and other videoconferencing hardware from brands like Yealink, Poly, and Avaya.

The Media Stations improve conferencing results greatly through their ease of use. You can add video sources, arrange them into premade or custom layouts, and combine these layouts with your graphics: corporate logos, backgrounds, images, links, QR codes, and so on. All of that works plug-and-play style and does not rely on any particular conferencing platform.

There is a lot more you can combine with AREC stations and numerous other applications where they shine. Stay tuned for the next ADENA Hack to read about bundle ideas for the education sector, and contact us at www.a-dena.com to find out more about our solutions!

Case Study: AREC + Televic, the formula for every successful council

Dear ADENA Partners, in this case study, we review how Rochford Council in the UK successfully uses the AREC DS-4CU together with the Televic Confidea discussion system. Thanks to the efforts of our distributor, Tukans, and system integrator, Nuway, Rochford Council now embodies its “Simpler, clearer, faster” slogan in every council meeting, increasing transparency and improving public outreach. Learn more about how the systems work below and watch the system in action on the Council’s YouTube channel.

Rochford Council is a governmental institution responsible for district services and providing information for the Rochford district. This includes plans for local economic development, tourism, housing, jobs, and many other matters. The council’s workload necessitates frequent meetings and debates, which, until recently, were streamed with a single camera. 

While the streams did make the meetings publicly visible, they only conveyed the bare minimum. Important parts of the proceedings, such as computer-shared content and diagrams, could not be displayed, and it was not possible to focus on active speakers without manual control of the camera. Consequently, the council decided to look for a way to improve its streaming setup, and thanks to the efforts of our distributor, Tukans, and system integrator, Nuway, found that the AREC DS-4CU was exactly what they needed.

DS-4CU Speaker Tracking Station

The DS-4CU is a speaker-tracking station that supports up to four video sources connected by HDMI, VGA, or network. It is integrated with a variety of popular discussion systems on the market, including Audio-Technica, Shure, Bosch, Televic, and others. The station can select a customisable layout with multiple video sources, switch overlays and backgrounds, and control PTZ movement of each connected camera uniquely for every speaker in a fully automatic mode. The combination of these features allows Rochford Council to clearly display the current speaker, switch to opposite cameras to display councillors on the other side of the chambers, and show various computer content as part of the livestream. 

Televic Confidea

Our station is used together with the Televic Confidea, a bespoke and robust discussion system for councils. It ensures that every speaker is clearly heard and comes with a multitude of features tailored to council meetings, such as voting, RFID authentication, and more, which Rochford Council uses in every meeting.

The council has joined the long list of successful meeting transformation projects accomplished with AREC, and you can see the results on its YouTube channel. Is your council also looking for a solution to improve recording, streaming, and conferencing processes? Reach out to us at www.a-dena.com, and we will be happy to arrange a discussion to show why AREC is the right solution.

Case Study: AREC KL-3T Helps to Create an Oasis of Transparency in Manchester Council

Dear ADENA Partners, this time we focus on Trafford Council in the UK and how it uses AREC products to ensure transparency and access to livestreams for local residents. The project, completed with our distributor Tukans and system integrator GVAV, demonstrates how AREC KL-3T stations make it simple for governmental institutions to reach all of their constituents day after day.

Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of Trafford Borough in Greater Manchester. It is an organisation responsible for a variety of administrative processes in Trafford, such as setting the levels of council taxes, monitoring the health service, education, social care, and more. The council performs these duties through meetings, which must be recorded and streamed for transparency. 

However, the original system in place for this was not performing as well as the council had hoped, as it was not easy to initiate and monitor the recording and livestream processes. The council started looking for solutions that could improve these and other aspects of meeting production, and our distributor Tukans, along with the system integrator GVAV, offered a complete solution that fully satisfied the council's needs.

The proposed solution was based on the AREC KL-3T Media Stations. These devices can combine up to 3 video sources with audio inputs into a single channel for recording and streaming. The stations also record these video sources separately at the same time, creating material for post-editing and independent viewing. The mixed video created by the Media Station can feature custom overlays and backgrounds, including logos of the organisations, titles of the speakers, advertisements, or other information. 

KL-3T Media Station

The KL-3T model is a particularly good fit for councils, as it features an inbuilt interactive display that shows what the device is recording and streaming at all times. It also comes with a GUI that can be used to control all key features of the device with a single touch. This means that anyone, even without an IT or AV background, can record and livestream without any other hardware or software, thereby helping to save the budget.. Moreover, thanks to the inbuilt control and preview display, the stations are very portable and can be moved to different council rooms as needed.

The council uses Angekis PTZ cameras to capture the speakers from different angles. These cameras are automatically displaying the active speaker thanks to the Televic Confero CAM solution, which is connected to the station and generates names and titles of those speakers. The Televic Confidea G4 Discussion System is used to capture audio, with its central unit connected to the Media Station as an audio input.

The solution created for the Trafford Council simplified the production of council recordings to the point of automation — exactly what the council wanted! It is used to great success to ensure public access to all council’s meetings, which can be watched live on the Trafford Council YouTube channel. Alternatively, take a look at the stream from the council’s chambers - one of the locations where Trafford Council is using AREC devices.

Is your local council providing the same level of transparency? Reach out to us at www.a-dena.com and let’s discuss how we can improve their setup with the AREC Media Capture System.