Location: Americas
June 12, 2023
Ricoh Latin America and Kramer Forge Alliance to Drive Creativity and Collaboration through Exceptional Audiovisual Experiences
Weston, 01 June, 2023 – Ricoh Latin America and Kramer, a leading global manufacturer of audio visual solutions, announce that they have signed an exclusive strategic alliance for the Latin American region. The alliance aims to provide effective and intuitive end-to-end solutions across various sectors (corporate, education, healthcare, etc.) to deliver audio visual experiences that enhance creativity, collaboration, and interaction in a hybrid world.
This strategic alliance leverages the complementary expertise and strengths of both companies, enabling organizations in any industry to offer cutting-edge audiovisual experiences to their users, facilitating seamless communication, connection, idea collaboration, and the exchange of perspectives.
Ricoh Latin America offers interactive displays that integrate the Android operating system and a range of pre-installed applications. These displays allow for the viewing of MS Office documents, annotation directly on the documents with the ability to save them on the board or in the cloud, web browsing, and screen sharing, among other functions. Ricoh also provides interactive displays with the Windows 11 operating system, which is ideal for corporate applications as required by companies.
From innovative wireless presentation and collaboration, revolutionary room control built in the cloud, to web-based AV network management, Kramer is setting a new standard for AV/IT convergence upon an open ecosystem. The company is committed to providing the best products, solutions, and services, and remaining the all-round choice for the enterprise, education, and government markets.
“We are proud to announce this alliance. Ricoh’s partnership with Kramer is another significant step in our drive to accelerate customers’ digital adoption, providing enriched learning and collaborative work experiences with greater flexibility to meet their needs. Our goal is to deliver a strong and robust value proposition, equipping organizations with the necessary tools to work, collaborate, and create smarter through the use of innovative technologies,” comments Jesús Santiago, Vice President of Sales at Ricoh Latin America.
“Today, Kramer focuses on delivering products, solutions, and services with a customer-centric approach, constantly listening to the market to help end-users stay more connected than ever. The goal of this alliance is to leverage the extensive expertise of both companies to provide all types of high-quality audiovisual experiences. With a reputation established over 40 years, we provide reliable and high-performance solutions for various industries worldwide,” explains Amit Ancikovsky, Kramer President Americas.
About Kramer
Kramer audio-visual experiences power creativity, collaboration, and engagement. From AVSM to advanced cloud-based communication, collaboration and control solutions, Kramer creates audio-visual experiences that are more engaging, more inclusive and more connected than ever before.
Headquartered in the heart of Startup Nation – Tel Aviv, Israel with locations around the world, Kramer’s audio-visual experts are designing the future of engagement technology. Physical and digital boundaries have blurred. But no matter how hybrid our world becomes, our desire for real, human connection will never cease.
Kramer’s intuitive, seamless technology breaks down walls, bridges gaps, and makes people feel closer together even when they’re far apart.
About Ricoh
Ricoh empowers digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services that enable people to work smarter. With 85 years of history, Ricoh has driven innovation by acquiring knowledge and capabilities that currently enable us to successfully help businesses adapt to new ways of working.
Ricoh offers solutions in areas such as document management, IT services, communication services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems. Headquartered in Tokyo, the Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the fiscal year ending March 2023, the Ricoh Group reported worldwide sales of 2.134 trillion yen (approximately 16 billion USD).
For more information, please visit the website: https://www.ricoh-americalatina.com/es
Kramer collaboration applications
Simplifying Video Conferencing: San Mateo County’s Success with Quicklaunch
Customer
County of San Mateo, California, USA
Industry
Government
Goals
- Provision meeting rooms with an easy to use, comprehensive collaboration solution
- Enable users to connect to meetings without logging into their Windows account
- Allow for scheduling of the room within the system
- Enable an automatic room reset, to wipe the meeting off the system
- Reduce service calls
Project Scope
- Install a collaboration solution in 30 conference rooms across multiple sites
- Installation at another 15 sites planned for 2022-2023 year, with more requests coming in
Value
- Quick and easy to launch, control, and close meetings, regardless of conferencing provider
- Meetings and room bookings can be instantly scheduled from within the system
- When the meeting is over, the users’ ‘identity’ is automatically wiped, securing the system for the next meeting
- New functions can be added as needed
- Reliability and ease of use have all but eliminated service calls
- The intuitive UI means quick adaption and almost no learning curve
Background
Founded in 1856, the County of San Mateo is located in California. It incorporates 20 regions including San Franciso-Oakland-Berkeley, Silicon Valley, and the San Francisco Bay Area, with a combined population of 765,000 people.
A single address for various business and residential services and needs, the County of San Mateo has over 7,000 employees across 26 different departments.
“The thinking and design process that went into Quicklaunch is leagues ahead of everybody else. It looks very simple and easy, and it is. And if you want more, you can also customize your environment and use case for whatever that task is going to be.”
Goals
The County of San Mateo had several very specific goals for its new video conferencing solution. Kevin Pankhurst, the county’s AV Manager, wanted the conference rooms to simply be a resource that could be used without users having to log in to the room’s PC or navigate setup steps. As such, the collaboration solution needed to have its own integrated UI so users would not have to interact with Windows for launching or closing the meeting. An automatic room reset, to wipe the meeting off the system when it’s done, was vital. Additionally, Kevin wanted to allow scheduling of the room from within the system.
With many users across multiple locations, with varying needs, the flexibility to customize the solution beyond its original design purposes was also essential. Likewise, ease of use, as Kevin is the only one in his department and has limited time to conduct in-person training. Similarly, as the sole help address, he needed the system to be reliable, to drastically reduce service calls.
Solution
Kevin chose Kramer’s Quicklaunch Ultimate Edition one-touch collaboration software as the video conferencing solution for all sites operated by the County of San Mateo. His decision was made in late 2018 for the next financial year.
“I don’t think there was anyone else in that space at that time” explains Kevin. “Quicklaunch blew me away. It was leagues ahead of everybody else. It looks very easy, it looks very simple and it is. Plus, there is a ton of stuff underneath the hood of Quicklaunch that will allow you to customize your environment and your use case for whatever that task is going to be.”
Quicklaunch was integrated as part of the whole solution Kevin created for the county’s various video conferencing spaces, working seamlessly with the chosen displays, microphones, speakers, and other applications.
While the County chose to delay installation during the height of the pandemic, Quicklaunch has since been installed in 30 conference rooms across multiple sites within the County of San Mateo, with another 15 installs planned for this fiscal year. “I’ve got a huge county. And so there are buildings all over the place. I keep getting requests for new locations. For example, our parks department is really excited about this because I created a demonstration for them, and I’m like, ‘You know, we can actually put Google Earth on this, and you can zoom in, and create custom maps for your parks,’ which they thought was genius.”
Value
Quicklaunch has lived up to expectations, and then some. “The fact that Quicklaunch has its own integrated UI, and the users aren’t dealing with Windows, and can just come in and step up to the device and use it is a big-time saver,” Kevin points out. “Having the ability to click on the meeting, whether it be a Zoom meeting or a Teams meeting, and just bring it up is instrumental. The user doesn’t have to look for anything. It’s right there in front of them. Nice, big button. They can’t miss it.”
As he elaborates: “One of the biggest problems that our users used to have in a conference room is, somebody logs into Windows, their meeting is over, they get up, they leave, it times out, and they’re still authenticated to that device – which stops the next meeting, because somebody has to go find them, they have to reboot the device, and that slows things down. Now with Quicklaunch’s integrated UI, that’s all gone away.”
Plus, there’s the room reset functionality built-in, to wipe the presence of that meeting off the system, as a security benefit. As Kevin explains: “With Quicklaunch, my users walk in, they don’t log into a PC, they just interact with the PC. When the meeting is over, the users walk away, their ‘identity’ is wiped, and it’s secure for the next meeting.”
Kevin comments that seeing the scheduling for the room right there within Quicklaunch has also been instrumental.
In terms of flexibility, Kevin has found Kramer an exceptionally responsive partner, and is thrilled that many of his requests and ideas have made their way into the solution. In detailing his experience, he says “I started using Quicklaunch in a way that it wasn’t designed for, and then immediately, I was put in touch with the Quicklaunch developers, who came up with brand-new features that are fantastic, and allow me to continue to do what I need to do for my business.”
At the end of the day, however, “the value to me is I don’t get any support calls,” emphasizes Kevin. “That is the absolute most important thing to me. Meetings are going easier, and I’m not getting calls 30 seconds before meetings, which alone indicates Quicklaunch is working well.’”
Training has also proven easy, with Kevin doing an in-person demonstration at each location, to introduce users to Quicklaunch, after which they are proficient. Staff are then able to bring new users up to speed without his assistance, further saving his time and energy.
As for reliability, Kevin has been more than pleased. “The whole entire ecosystem that I put together is 100% reliable. I’m only using quality products that work, because I can’t jump and run to different buildings in 30 seconds. It’s impossible. It is the whole entire user experience that I created, partnering with Quicklaunch as the interface, that has made my rooms a success.”
Looking ahead, Kevin sees Quicklaunch as an integral part of the county’s AV future. “My intention is, every five years, we’re going to refresh these rooms. The equipment may change, and the manufacturers may change. But for now, I have no intention of leaving Quicklaunch out of the mix. There’s nothing that’s out there that supersedes what Quicklaunch can do.”
He concludes: “I have had nothing but a positive experience during the numerous years that I’ve worked with Quicklaunch. It’s been fantastic!”
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Reliability, durability, quality, and service make Kramer the right choice for Florida Bankruptcy Court
Customer
US Bankruptcy Court (FLMB), Middle District of Florida, USA
Industry
Government
Goals
- Update courtroom technology for teleconferencing, video conferencing, recordings, and image display
- Support higher resolution video and BYOD use
- Add remote court capabilities
- Ensure ease of use and seamless operation
- Minimize maintenance and troubleshooting efforts
Project Scope
- 10 courtrooms across three locations
- 3 or 4 cameras, 1 display, and 5 monitors per courtroom
- In-house design, installation, and maintenance process
- A copy-paste configuration template
Value
- Improved resolution on displays, maximizes images from the new 4K cameras
- Users can now ability switch inputs
- Lawyers can easily present exhibits and evidence from their laptops
- Court deputies can easily operate the system after a short hands-on training
- Full remote capabilities in all four Orlando courtrooms
- Identical configuration in all courtrooms facilitates troubleshooting, reduces maintenance
Background
The US Bankruptcy Court (FLMB), located in the Middle District of Florida, is part of the US Federal Judiciary system. It has four locations across the state: active courts in Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa, and an administrative site in Fort Myers. The buildings themselves vary in age, with the oldest in Tampa dating from the 1950s or so. Because the bankruptcy court does not use court reporters, all hearings are recorded.
Goals
In 2017, FLMB kicked off a major initiative to update and upgrade the AV systems in all bankruptcy courtrooms across Florida. It already had a Kramer-based system in place for teleconferencing, video conferencing, presenting evidence and exhibits, and recording hearings. However, the system was mostly analog, and much of the equipment was old, dating back seven years or more. FLMB wanted to upgrade its AV systems to support higher-resolution video, improve the scaling and quality to better support BYOD, and enable easy operation by court deputies, who operate the AV system during hearings.
FLMB also wanted to minimize maintenance and troubleshooting, as the two-person AV team based in Orlando is responsible for all three court locations across the state.
The AV project consisted of updating 10 courtrooms in total, four in Orlando, and three in Tampa and Jacksonville respectively.
Once COVID-19 hit, the court needed to quickly adapt to remote hearings and operations.
Solution
Noel Rodriguez, the AV Specialist at FLMB, had enjoyed excellent experiences with Kramer equipment since 2001, including in his previous job in the District Court of Puerto Rico, so Kramer was his first choice for the new project at FLMB. According to Noel, Kramer checks all the boxes: quality, durability, reliability, and customer service. His view: “Kramer service has always been amazing. The math is simple; why buy something that might be reliable, but when it breaks down, you don’t have the customer service for it.”
Once Noel had specified the equipment requirements, a public tender was issued, and a supplier was chosen.
For all three locations, the same design and equipment were procured in a copy-paste manner, for simplicity’s sake. Each courtroom has three cameras – one each for the judge and witness, one at the lawyer’s lectern – and the Tampa courtrooms each have an additional lectern camera. At each courthouse, the installation included pairs of TP−580T high−performance, long−reach HDBaseT transmitters, and TP−580R receivers, PT−571 twisted pair transmitters for HDMI signals with PT-572+ receivers, a VS-88H2 Matrix switcher, VP−424C digital scaler, a VM−4HN distribution amplifier for 4K UHD HDMI signals, and an FC-46XL HDMI audio de-embedder.
Noel and his small team handled the AV system design and all installations. The AV system runs through the IT DC network, secured with IP protocols and passwords.
Jacksonville was the first project, completed in 2018, as its system was the oldest and was reliant on analog technologies. In 2019, the team moved on to Tampa, using the same AV design. The final phase of the project was the Orlando location, whose final courtroom was completed in July 2022.
Value
The installation of the new AV equipment went smoothly, according to the systematic plan.
The Kramer equipment improved resolution on display screens, maximizing images from the upgraded 4K courtroom cameras. It gave users the ability to switch input sources, which had previously been lacking. According to Noel, users can now “select source inputs, what audio they want, and anything that they need to present, and all at a higher quality.” It also met aesthetic demands, with most equipment hidden under tables and behind walls.
Importantly, the AV solution supports bring your own device (BYOD) trends, allowing lawyers to easily present exhibits and evidence from their laptops.
The system has proven easy to learn, with the courtroom deputies able to operate it after a short hands-on training, regardless of their prior technical knowledge.
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Noel was able to get remote court hearings up and running within a matter of weeks. Now that in-person court is back, the four Orlando courtrooms are still set up to operate remotely if needed. As Noel explains, the need for remote court operations is here to stay, with things like extreme weather and natural disasters to overcome. “We have created courtrooms that can be used by the judges as if they are there in-person, to service remote proceedings for people across the entire state.”
Having used a copy-paste template for each courtroom’s AV design, Noel has found maintenance is now a breeze. “With everything the same, it’s really easy to troubleshoot. And if anything goes wrong at one location, we can either pre-empt or prepare for the same issue at others, with the solution already in-hand.”
Noel has been impressed by Kramer’s customer service on multiple occasions. “When I was working on the Jacksonville install, we had an EDID issue,” he continues. “As soon as we called Kramer, we got a great walkthrough with a customer service technician, and the problem got fixed. More recently, during the testing stage a new switcher wasn’t receiving the input signal. After trying to troubleshoot it, I called Kramer, and they immediately sent a new unit.”
As far as recommendations go, he only has praise. “I’ve been relying on Kramer for more than 20 years for the quality, endurance, reliability, and customer service, which is amazing” Noel concludes. “It’s got all that, and it’s easy to program. I’d certainly advise any AV person that you can’t go wrong with Kramer.”
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Improving enriches workplace flexibility, engagement, and productivity with Quicklaunch
Customer
Improving, Calgary Offices, Canada
Industry
Enterprise
Goals
- Work flexibility – Empower employees to work from anywhere, with the same productivity
- Enhance connectivity and collaboration for internal teams
- Provide new opportunities for customer-facing interactions, including training sessions and sales
Project Scope
- Integrate Kramer’s Quicklaunch in the training rooms and boardroom
- Add new 4K cameras in two training rooms
Value
- Enables a seamless hybrid work environment, including content sharing
- Facilitates frictionless engagement with remote and in-person attendees
- Eliminates time-wasting and confusing meeting startup processes
- Opens new business opportunities around hybrid services
- Enhances security, by automatically deleting all information at the end of each meeting
- Ensures the room is always setup and ready for the next person
Solution
- Quicklaunch
- K-Cam4K cameras
Background
Improving is an IT services firm offering comprehensive training, consulting, and project services. Its innovative solutions and processes have helped hundreds of clients across the globe in finance, energy, travel, retail, government, and other industries realize their tactical and strategic business objectives. The company has over 1,400 employees in offices across Canada, the US, and Mexico.
In early 2020, with its lease coming up for renewal, the Calgary branch of Improving was considering a move to new offices. That all changed when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. “We moved all our work online, so I was questioning the need for space,” says Michael McCullough, President, Improving – Calgary. “It was pretty clear we weren’t going back to 2019. But I also felt like we couldn’t stay in 2020.”
Goals
Michael realized the workplace would have to accommodate new kinds of work preferences. “Number one, people don’t want to be told they have to go to the office. And number two, they don’t want to be told they can’t go into the office. People want to feel they have agency and are treated as professionals; that they know the best place to work effectively.”
He added: “Flexible work arrangements are also important to diversity as they make it easier for team members from all walks of life to accommodate things like medical needs, child rearing, and other family commitments.”
To empower employees with choices, Michael decided to do a new build-out of Improving – Calgary’s offices. A key part of that was upgrading the AV solution to better address work flexibility and meet three specific needs. Michael explains: “We have our own team that comes here to work, and of course we’ve moved into a hybrid work environment, so wanted to set things up to be hybrid all the time. In addition, we do public training sessions in our training spaces. The third category is community groups: we open our doors and share our space with professional groups, like Women in Data, so we wanted our space to support those kinds of meetups.”
Solution
Improving decided to install Kramer’s Quicklaunch meeting room software solution in its training rooms and boardroom. Although the system also has keyboard control, the touchscreen activation and control has proven the go-to choice for the Improving team. “Once people started understanding the intent and reason behind Quicklaunch, they quickly moved to approaching everything as an online meeting, even for all those in the same room, which really helps to simplify things.”
Improving handled the installation of Quicklaunch, with support from the Kramer team.
In addition, Improving installed Kramer 4K HD cameras in its two training rooms. “They’re very plug-and-play devices, the controls all make sense, and they work out-of-the-box, so that worked great,” recalls Michael. “They have proved particularly useful for training workshops, as well as for townhalls. The cameras have the ability to focus on different areas of the room, so the remote participants are able to follow the speaker.” Improving’s plan also calls for Kramer Control and switches, which will be added later, for enhanced AV management capabilities and to support additional applications, such as digital signage.
Value
“Quicklaunch is a technology that enables a hybrid work environment, and that includes very quick and frictionless engagement with remote or in-person attendees sharing content,” Michael explains. “While sharing content may sound trivial, it’s a brand-new way of sharing, so it’s now a very fluid way of discussing and having a conversation together.”
The use cases have been wide, inspiring better communications and opening new business opportunities. “For example,” Michael continues, “we recently ran a Blockchain Developer Workshop. There were about 20 participants in-person and about the same number online; it was a phenomenal setup where everyone was able to communicate amongst each other and work through this workshop together.”
Plus, the new AV solution has helped boost sales: “The Kramer technology and integration have set us up to be able to sell into a hybrid environment, a fully online environment, or an in-person environment, all very easily,” says Michael.
“We also use Quicklaunch extensively for business development meetings, recruitment, and even internal sessions. We have team members here in Calgary, Toronto, and Vancouver so using Quicklaunch brings us all together. It feels like a smooth conversation amongst our team.”
Quicklaunch has been a game-changer – for the person running the meeting as much as the attendees. Michael says: “The ability to walk into the room and simply log-in and start a meeting with my phone is tremendously helpful. Now I don’t have to carry my laptop around. I can devote more attention to clients or team engagement, as opposed to what’s happening with my laptop, cords, and plugs. It makes meetings much more efficient and focused.”
Michael has also been impressed by the security element inherent in Quicklaunch. “I don’t want people downloading or setting up environments on our computers. The great thing about Quicklaunch is that this is all taken care of, and the machine is clean at the end of every single meeting; there are no breadcrumbs left behind.”
The Quicklaunch setup is instrumental in keeping rooms organized and optimized. “In the old days, people would go into the meeting room, and install things or mess with the equipment, removing cords from behind the machine or the display. Sometimes the room would be left not set-up for the next person. So that’s been taken off the table now. That’s extremely important when we have a lot of back-to-back meetings,” Michael explains.
To set up the Quicklaunch products, Improving worked together with the Kramer team. Michael notes that he valued the “deep experience at Kramer in this area, to help us get the results I was looking for. For Quicklaunch there are collaborative tools you need to do right. We needed to establish what our standard meeting tools would be, what other tools we wanted, and how we would display these tools or content in a way that meeting attendees can use. Kramer helped us with that, so while we did the physical work, it was a collaborative integration and a very effective one at that.”
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June 8, 2022
Kramer scales up operations in Americas with new leadership, branding and products at InfoComm 2022
InfoComm, June 8, 2022 – Kramer, the leading audio-visual experience company, today announces its business transformation for the Americas at InfoComm 2022. Kramer can be found at Booth W723, West Hall, Exhibit Hall.
An audio-visual pioneer with over 40 years of experience and 20+ offices worldwide, Kramer has recently undergone a strategic evolution. The company has launched its new vision for the future, increased its R&D budget, and broadened its target sectors to Education, Government, Defense, and Enterprise.
Kramer’s global HQ has also created a regional structure across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, including the opening of a new regional EMEA office in Amsterdam, to uphold stronger partner relationships and serve customers more efficiently than ever.
Meanwhile, the company has appointed Amit Ancikovsky as the new President of Kramer Americas, and set new goals to triple worldwide revenue over the next three years.
The New Kramer Vision
Visitors to Kramer’s booth at InfoComm, North America’s leading professional audio-visual trade show, will experience first-hand the company’s new brand and strategy.
Over the last couple of years, the physical and digital boundaries of our world have blurred, and people now live, work, and engage in more ways than ever before. But no matter how hybrid our everyday lives become, we continue to crave real, human connections, whether we are face-to-face or an ocean apart.
This new ‘physi-digi’ world now requires products that drive productivity and collaboration, both virtually and in person. Kramer’s vision is to meet this demand by creating technology that powers the world’s most intuitive end-to-end audio-visual experiences.
InfoComm also sees the American launch of Kramer’s new corporate identity. The updated logo, color scheme, and company value proposition represent connections: the seamless, dynamic power of Kramer’s technology to uphold the intersection of our physi-digi existence.
Kramer’s Solutions Portfolio
New products within Kramer’s AVoIP, collaboration technology, and UC pillars will also be showcased at InfoComm.
Featured solutions include the KDS-7 range of high-performance and scalable AVoIP solutions, the new line of Kramer collaboration devices, and upgrades to the VIA platform. Plus, the company’s latest software solutions will be demonstrated, including the first US showcase of new acquisition UCWorkspace within the Kramer portfolio.
On-site Kramer Experts and Spokespeople
Kramer CEO, Gilad Yron, and President of Kramer Americas, Amit Ancikovsky, will host an informal media session at the Kramer booth on June 9th from 10 AM, in which they will introduce the ‘new’ Kramer and share insights into their vision for the Americas region.
Kramer experts will also be on hand to discuss current trends in the industry, how they are reshaping organizations worldwide, and ways in which Kramer’s technology can help visitors navigate the future of communication and collaboration.
Gilad Yron, CEO at Kramer, said: “Now that we’re living in a truly hybrid, physi-digi world, Kramer has pivoted to become the end-to-end technology partner for organizations worldwide, powering global creativity, expression, and connectivity. I’m delighted to showcase this evolution at InfoComm and introduce our new Kramer Americas president, Amit, who has an outstanding record of leading major business transformations.”
Amit Ancikovsky, President of Kramer Americas, said: “Our end-to-end technologies support organizations and individuals to create more immersive connectivity experiences than ever, regardless of their location. I’m thrilled to join Gilad in showcasing our new vision, brand, and solutions at InfoComm 2022.”
Kramer at InfoComm
The InfoComm trade show will take place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, USA, from 4th – 10th June 2022. Kramer will be exhibiting at Booth W723, West Hall, Exhibit Hall from 8th – 10th June.
For more information, please visit https://infocomm22.mapyourshow.com/8_0/exhibitor/exhibitor-details.cfm?exhid=1378.
Contact details
For additional information, please contact:
Veralyne Tan or Emily Roe at [email protected]
Kramer AVoIP Helps an Alabama Emergency Operations Center Respond to Anything
Customer
Morgan County Emergency Management Agency (EMA), Alabama, USA
Industry
Government
Goals
- Improve AV system usability so staff can easily get a clear picture of what’s going on, and how to respond
- Increase flexibility in what can be displayed
- Allow unified control over existing equipment
- Support easy expansion of the AV system as needed
Project Scope
- Update the AV equipment to ensure staff can better respond to a wide range of emergencies
- Install the system using internal staff
Value
- Ease of use ensures even someone without technical knowledge can operate the system
- Staff can easily control the sources on the displays, and switch content
- Access to the system from smartphones and iPads improves workflow and is especially value in emergency situations
- Inherent expandability means new equipment can be added as the budget becomes available
Background
The Morgan County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) is the definition of a mission-critical organization. Overseeing the safety of some 123,000 residents in north-central Alabama, the agency needs to be ready for anything: the county is frequently hit by severe weather events like tornadoes, and part of it is within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant. To ensure it can mitigate and respond to a wide array of emergencies, the agency needed a technology ecosystem that was flexible, easy to operate, and most importantly, reliable.
Operating two sub-grade floors of the Morgan County Courthouse in Decatur, the EMA’s emergency operations center (EOC) was initially built in 1975-6. Its systems evolved over the years from chalkboards to a combination of TVs and four VGA projectors. By 2019, it was clear that this setup was no longer sufficient.
Goals
According to Trent Simon, Emergency Management Specialist, Plans and Operations at the Morgan County EMA, the agency’s foremost demand was greater versatility. “With this update we really wanted the space to be flexible in what we could display, and we wanted to increase the amount of things we could display,” Trent said. “We wanted to be able to use it for different things, because it may only be active in emergencies a handful of times out of the year; it’s not a 24-hour operation center.” During normal conditions, the EMA makes use of the center for training sessions and classes, along with other events.
The second requirement was expandability: the 2019 upgrade replaced the EOC’s aging visual setup with a modern video wall composed of a central 7×2 array of 75-inch LG displays flanked by 2×2 grids of 55-inch monitors. The EMA required a solution to tie these all together and operate them today, with the capability to easily add more endpoints as needed.
Third, the system needed to be easy to use. The main room is a long, narrow space, and with the previous arrangement, it was difficult at times for staff at one end to keep up with what was happening at the other. Before the upgrade, the facility’s displays ran through a 16×16 matrix switcher operated by a stationary control computer. In order to change what was being shown on the screens, staff had to get up and walk over to the computer. In the event of an emergency, this was highly impractical for a staff of four members to operate.
Solution
After weighing a number of options, Trent and his team chose a Kramer AVoIP system to serve as the brains behind the EOC’s displays. “I did a lot of research on different systems, and Kramer came out on top,” Trent said. “We could start off where we wanted to be, which was larger than we were previously, but we could also grow it in the future a lot easier than some of the other systems we looked at.”
The Kramer AVoIP system consists of KDS-EN6 encoders and KDS-DEC6 decoders, which provide streaming over a 1-gigabit IP network and are capable of handling 4K60 (4:2:0) video, audio, IR, RS−232, and USB over IP with HDCP 2.2 in unicast or multicast configurations.
The EMA completed the renovation over the better part of a year, beginning in late 2019. They installed a raised floor with integrated power and cable management, tore some walls down to open the space up, and retiled the ceiling before moving on to the technology component. All of the audiovisual equipment was purchased through CDW, and between the facilities maintenance crew, IT personnel, and Trent’s team, they were able to install the entire system themselves.
Due to COVID-related delays, it took the team some six months to get all of the technology installed, programmed, and up and running. “COVID probably prevented some of the Kramer guys coming down or us getting some other guys in here, but it also helped us learn the system’s ins and outs a lot better too, having to do that on our own,” Trent said. “When a couple of issues did arise, Kramer’s support staff was quick to help. We had a few calls with Kramer’s team and were able to work out all the bugs. My hat’s off to our guys because they really didn’t have any problems.”
Trent particularly appreciated the ability to easily tailor the system to the EMA’s needs. “One of the things I like about the Kramer system is that we were able to make it our own,” he said. “I’m fairly tech savvy, but we wanted to make it easy to use for someone who’s not, so they can come in and turn on the system without having to have all this technical knowledge.”
Value
Fortunately, the EMA hasn’t faced any disasters since the new system went online, but it has proved reliable and intuitive for other use cases, like trainings and events with other agencies. “Since we’ve had this installed, we’ve had our State EMA come in, we’ve had some of the other counties come in, and they really have liked this system,” Trent said.
The Kramer system is helping to meet all of the challenges the EOC was previously facing. With Kramer Control, the staff can easily control the sources on the displays and switch content so everyone can see what’s going on. “This system made it easier because now we have a display space, we have plenty of screens, we can duplicate one input across any of the screens,” Trent said.
With the Kramer Control app, the EMA’s staff members can turn the system on and off from their smartphones or the EOC’s iPads. “It makes it so much easier to use,” Trent said. “In an emergency situation, we’re kind of all over the place. So being able to turn on the system, change things up, and operate it from an iPad or cellphone is really awesome.”
The system is also delivering on the need for flexibility. In addition to the EOC, there are several other spaces in the facility with displays tied into the Kramer network, including an auditorium and a training and meeting room. “The Kramer system allowed us to separate these two rooms,” Trent said. “If we have operations going on in the emergency operations center and training going on, they wouldn’t interfere. Or we could also use [the training room] as an overflow for the operations center. We could tie them in together or run them separately, and we did not have that capability before.”
Meeting the final requirement, the system is proving to be easily expandable. The team is currently in the process of upgrading the auditorium podium to facilitate presentations. “We just placed an order today for more encoders and decoders,” Trent said. “The Kramer system’s [ease of expansion] was really a selling point for us. Being local government, there’s not always tons of money out there to do these kinds of things, but if at the end of the fiscal year we want to add another display to the system or another input, we can continue to build on what we already have.”
While the system has operated smoothly, for the most part, hiccups have proved trivial due to Kramer’s faithful support. “The customer service of Kramer is just outstanding, the tech support guys have just been great,” Trent said. “We had a couple of issues that popped up, but they answered the phone every time we called and worked with us. They didn’t just wipe their hands clean of us after we bought the system; they’ve really been involved and making sure that our system is working how we need it to work. They’ve been great to work with.”
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