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Simplifying Video Conferencing: San Mateo County’s Success with Quicklaunch

The view from Montara Lighthouse, a beautiful seashore cliff
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“Having the ability to click on the meeting, whether it’s Zoom or Teams, 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.”
— Kevin Pankhurst, AV Manager, County of San Mateo

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.

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“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.”
— Kevin Pankhurst, AV Manager, County of San Mateo

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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Government and Defense

Collaboration Applications

Americas

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Reliability, durability, quality, and service make Kramer the right choice for Florida Bankruptcy Court

Florida Bankruptcy Court, shot from the outside, in which Kramer solutions are installed
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“I honestly need to say that you will not find more reliable and trustworthy products than Kramer. That’s why I have repeatedly chosen them since 2001.”
— Noel Rodriguez | AV Specialist, US Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida

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.

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“The product, the reliability, the durability, the cost, the service, and the fact that it’s easy to manage, easy to work with other third parties, and easy to program make Kramer my go-to choice.”
— Noel Rodriguez | AV Specialist, US Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Florida

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.

Users can now “select source inputs, what audio they want, and anything they need to present, all at a higher quality,” with most equipment hidden under tables and behind walls.

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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Government and Defense

Control

Americas

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Improving enriches workplace flexibility, engagement, and productivity with Quicklaunch

Improving's logo on an office's white wall on which Kramer quicklaunch is installed
Michael McCullough, President, Improving, Calgary - a company that has quicklaunch and Kramer solutions installed
“Quicklaunch takes a lot of the confusion and setup that ordinarily would have emerged where people are rolling their own audio-visual, and makes it just a very simple, fluid, and seamless experience.”
— Michael McCullough | President, Improving – Calgary

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.”

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“Workplaces need to look for ways to enable employees to do the best work they can, where they need to, with the flexibility to decide when they come into the office or stay at home. That is how we’ve moved forward here. And I think Kramer is a big part of that.”
— Michael McCullough | President, Improving – Calgary

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.”

“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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Enterprise

Collaboration Applications

Americas

Canada

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June 8, 2022

Kramer scales up operations in Americas with new leadership, branding and products at InfoComm 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]

Tags:

AVoIP Solutions

Collaboration Applications

Collaboration Devices

United States

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Kramer AVoIP Helps an Alabama Emergency Operations Center Respond to Anything

The Alabama Emergency Operations Center, showing numerous screens, using Kramer AVoIP devices
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“The customer service of Kramer is just outstanding… they’ve really been involved and making sure that our system is working how we need it to work.”
— Trent Simon | Emergency Management Specialist, Morgan County EMA

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.”

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“One of the things I like about the Kramer system is that we were able to make it our own. We wanted to make it easy to use for someone who is not tech savvy, so they can come in and turn on the system without having all this technical knowledge.”
— Trent Simon | Emergency Management Specialist, Morgan County EMA

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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Tags:

Government and Defense

AVoIP Solutions

Americas

United States

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State-of-the-art New Atlanta Music Venue

A nice, dark, cushioned room at the Esternmusic hall where Kramer solutions are installed
Nauman Lalani, Director of Special Projects, Music Matters Productions - a venue where Kramer solutions are installed
“On the Kramer side, the deployment is easy, user-friendly, and customizable.”
— Nauman Lalani | Director of Special Projects, Music Matters Productions

Located in the Reynoldstown neighbourhood of Atlanta just east of downtown, The Eastern is a brand-new, state-of-the-art performance venue designed to offer the best live music experience possible. With its multi-tiered floorplan, rooftop with covered performance space, restaurant, and multiple full-service bars, the hall also plays host to a variety of other events, from corporate meetings to launch parties. With such a wide range of uses, the ownership knew it needed a cutting-edge video system to stand out. 

The Challenge

According to Nauman Lalani, Director of Special Projects at Atlanta-based integrator Music Matters, which provided the venue’s audio, video, and lighting systems, the goal was to be able to distribute video to the numerous screens throughout the facility. These include an LED video wall at the rooftop bar and green room displays.

“They have five green rooms, and they wanted a camera feed of the stage in all of them,” Lalani said. “They open the rooftop up for shows; it’s where they serve food and there’s a bar, and people lounge up there. They wanted to distribute video of the stage to the LED wall on the rooftop.” 

For corporate events, the venue wanted the ability for customers to easily customize the screens. “[The owners] were like ‘We just want to have their logo, and not have to plug a flash drive into every monitor,'” Lalani said. Finally, they wanted the capability of elevating the performance space with video. “We have some touring groups that want to do visuals, and they’re either going to come on stage left or stage right.”

The video distribution system needed to be easily expandable, as the venue is planning on increasing its digital signage deployment. It had to be easy enough for any of the staff to operate, and it also had to be able to transmit 4K signals without installing more costly infrastructure. “They’d already drawn Cat-6 [cables] everywhere,” Lalani said. “Being able to do everything over a 1-gigabit backbone instead of having to run Cat-6A was a pretty big financial decision at the very beginning.”

The Solution

Lalani considered solutions from Extron, Crestron, and Kramer. “I spent a lot of time researching all three, and landed on the entire AV-over-IP architecture from Kramer,” he said. “The scalability of the system is what drove the decision. The Eastern wants to add to their system later on, and the ability to add more decoders in places whenever we need them is a huge plus.”

The cost savings of achieving their desired quality over standard network infrastructure was also a major consideration. “Having that 1-gig backbone uplink made it easier to spec Kramer instead of something else, and still be able to do 4K,” Lalani said. “Because everything in the building is future-proof, we’re able to do the 4K 4:2:0 signal across Kramer’s AV-over-IP system.”

Using Kramer KDS-EN6 encoders and KDS-DEC6 decoders, the Music Matters team set up a network running across the facility’s Netgear AV-over-IP line of 1-gigabit switches. A Panasonic AW-UE150 4K PTZ camera captures video of the stage, and the system distributes it to the screens in the green rooms and the rooftop LED wall. “There are 10 outputs and six inputs, and there’s a master room controller,” Lalani said. “We have encoders and decoders stage left, stage right, front of the house, rooftop. Basically, wherever there’s audio playback, there’s video playback.” The venue also has a Kramer VIA GO² for presentations. 

Control is performed with two dedicated Kramer KT-107 7-inch wall- and table-mount PoE touchpanels. “Teaching the clients how to use the KT-107 was a snap,” Lalani said. He and his team programmed the interface with The Eastern’s logo in the background and a button overlay. “It’s almost an iPhone look, it’s very simple and to the point. It’s like ‘Hey, I’m in this part of the building, I want this feed here, click here.'”

The Eastern also purchased an iPad for mobile control that runs the Kramer Control GUI, which is also accessible on the owner’s iPhone. “On the Kramer side, the deployment is very easy, very user-friendly,” Lalani said. “And it’s customizable; if in a year they add more sources, add more decoders, a quick push from the cloud allows us to add more buttons as needed.”

The Results

According to Lalani, the reception to the system has been outstanding. “It was meant to be subtle, and it just works,” he said. The venue is planning on expanding the system with further digital signage endpoints. “There are five bars in the building, and right now they just have a whiteboard, but they want to add a menu system deployment,” he added. “They’re also currently handwriting their show schedule on a board by the entrance, and eventually that will change to a digital signage monitor as well.” To add these, the process is as simple as connecting an additional Kramer decoder to a signage player on display. 

While the system has performed with exceptional reliability, the Music Matters team is especially appreciative of the assistance available from Kramer when small issues do arise. “The readiness of the support is great,” Lalani said. “When I’m troubleshooting something, I can just text them. Our lifestyle right now is really on the go, and we’re hustling, so not having to wait in a 1-800 call queue is a big advantage.”

“Access to our sales reps and their tech person is awesome,” Lalani continued. “Whenever I run into a small thing, I can reach out and be like ‘Hey, is this what I’m supposed to be doing?’ and they’re like ‘No, it’s actually this.’ That’s what I love about the whole thing.”

“They’re a really big company but you never feel like it,” added Lindsay Schwartz, Director of Marketing at Music Matters. “You feel like you’re the most important person on their list of ten people they need to talk to today. No problem is too small.”

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New Arizona courthouse facilitates seamless communication with a state-of-the-art AV solution

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“We now have an audio video system that provides the same level of services and advancements that a professional AV company could have installed for us. In addition, we are now positioned to provide immediate support or changes ourselves to provide an even greater return on investment.”
— Kyle Rimel | IT Director, Mohave County Superior Court

Background

Located in Kingman, Arizona, the recently completed Mohave County Superior Courthouse is a $20M building with four stories, seven courtrooms, four jury rooms, two conference rooms, and over 100 employees. A long-awaited addition to the county’s judicial system, the new building’s AV setup provided a unique set of opportunities – and challenges –for the court’s IT Team, from the initial design process through to ongoing maintenance and planning for future expansion.

For the past 18 years, Kyle Rimel has worked as the IT Director for the Mohave County Superior Court. In September 2020, he was awarded the G. Thomas Munsterman Award for Jury Innovation from the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) for his role in quickly and effectively transitioning jury selection to a remote process at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Goals

Instead of relying on an outside vendor to install and maintain the AV system for the new courthouse, Kyle and his team – most of whom are Kramer-certified – were tasked with creating a custom solution from the ground up. He explains, “The original cost to complete the building was just too expensive, so they started cutting costs. Two years ago, when we kicked off the building design, our presiding judge asked me specifically, ‘Can you implement the AV yourself?’ I was confident I could take on that level of work, and because of that decision, we were able to pull the trigger and move forward.”

Logistics were also an important consideration. Spanning both sides of the Grand Canyon, Mohave is the fifth-largest county in the United States. This makes even intra-county travel a difficult process – let alone travel from larger cities such as Flagstaff or Phoenix. And so for Kyle and his team, being able to troubleshoot and make on-the-fly changes to the courthouse’s AV interface without outside support was critical.

“We don’t have any AV companies within a hundred miles, and if we have something fail, we can’t afford to wait four hours for somebody to drive from Phoenix,” says Kyle. “We need that courtroom up and running, so we needed to build a system that we could maintain internally.” This is where Kramer stood out from its competitors.

Solution

Kyle noted that he and his team were able to purchase Kramer products directly from CDW Corporation – providing necessary autonomy and helping cut costs on the installation.

“Right away Kramer’s interface was much easier for us to follow, maintain, and implement,” Kyle explains. “We looked at other Kramer products and found that they offered most of the solutions we were looking for, so we selected them for our new building. I was able to add hardware, add individual images, build my touch panels, and get a working system within a matter of a couple of days.”

Kyle and his team installed Kramer’s VP-444 for video switching, the VM-218DT for monitor distribution, TP-580R to receive the video signal on each of the eight monitors, the PT-571, and PT-572+ to extend the inputs from the attorneys’ tables and lectern for all other inputs (such as Blu-ray players and document cameras). All equipment runs over a CAT6 cabling infrastructure and is controlled by a Kramer SL-240C with two integrated Kramer touch panels.

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“Kramer’s interface was much easier for us to follow, maintain, and implement. We looked at Kramer products and found that they offered the majority of the solutions we were looking for, so we selected them for our new building. I was able to add hardware, add individual images, build my touch panels, and get a working system within a matter of a couple of days.”
— Kyle Rimel | IT Director, Mohave County Superior Court

Value

For a busy courtroom setting with several users on any given day, ensuring the system was intuitive was of utmost importance. “I have designed separate pages and buttons on the Kramer touch panel to control many different pieces of equipment. For example, I have built a separate page just to control the DSP to allow the judge to control each individual microphone, pump white noise into the courtroom, or adjust the audio levels into and out of the courtroom,” Kyle continues.

Fully integrated control of the video conferencing system and a PIP controller also allows the judge to choose which of four different camera views he or she wishes to display to remote parties at the touch of a button.

The reception from judges, court administrators, and the Board of Supervisors has been overwhelmingly positive – a night-and-day improvement over their old VGA environment. “Prior to this setup, judges were not able to control audio at all. Some judges literally had to go to the amplifier and increase or decrease the volume. Even though we had some volume knobs, the way we did it was archaic. We’ve evolved.”

Overall, as Kyle reflects, “The amount of work my team and I have invested into this building and specifically each individual courtroom has been tremendous, from design to installation. But as a result, we now have an audio-visual system that provides the same level of services and advancements that a professional AV company could have installed for us. In addition, we are now positioned to provide immediate support or changes ourselves, to provide an even greater return on investment.”

After a successful installation at the courthouse in Kingman, Kyle and his team are now looking toward a future pair of projects elsewhere in Mohave County. First, they plan on completely renovating the old courthouse – a 100-year-old building that has a mishmash of different types of audio-visual technologies. Second, one of the county’s municipal courts has also decided to construct a new building with three additional courtrooms.

When asked whether he will be using the same Kramer equipment in these two upcoming projects, Kyle gave a definitive answer. “Absolutely!”

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UNC School of Medicine Goes Wireless with Kramer VIA Solutions

UNC School of Medicine Goes Wireless with Kramer VIA Solutions
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“We are putting the VIA units everywhere possible. It is awesome. Rock solid. Kramer is our solution for wireless video.”
— Sten Swenson | Director of Academic Technology Services, UNC School of Medicine

Background

UNC School of Medicine’s mission is to be the nation’s leading public school of medicine.  Located in Chapel Hill, NC, the school is committed to scholarship and the scientific medicine of the present and future.  It offers education, research opportunities, and patient care.  Its 1,600 faculty members and just over 2,000 staff members rely on the School of Medicine IT to provide personalized and innovative IT solutions that support education, research, and patient care and empower students, faculty, and staff to move forward by integrating technology into their everyday lives.

Goals

The customer wanted to upgrade and standardize all AV spaces across the School of Medicine. The system needed to be advanced with reliable technology, easy to use, and integrated throughout the campus. According to Sten Swenson, Director of Academic Technology Services at UNC School of Medicine, the system also had to support the specific applications used by the medical students. “The UNC School of Medicine has a 1:1 ratio of iPads to students, and the apps are highly curated for the medical students’ curriculum,” he said.  “It is a challenge to find a system compatible with all of our use cases, but Kramer checked all of the boxes and has been a reliable solution.”

The Solution

Two of Kramer’s wireless solutions, the VIA GO and VIA Connect PLUS stood out from the pack when the UNC IT team received demonstrations from potential electronics partners.

“After seeing demos from all of the competitors, we concluded that Kramer was the best technology at a good price point, and it had the right features – the ability to present multiple screens of video at once is an added bonus,” said Sten Swenson.

Our Challenges

The installations have gone smoothly, and UNC has recently made a change to allow video sharing from the Guest network as well, which was a key requirement. UNC is also in the process of setting up the software management solution VIA Site Management (VSM) that Kramer offers for enterprise maintenance and configuration.

Value

UNC School of Medicine liked the Kramer VIA wireless technology so much that the IT group recommended installing it in all the classrooms and meeting rooms on campus.  They went from 0 to over 75 units in one year, installing over 75 separate rooms with either a VIA GO or VIA Connect PLUS; simpler wireless-only VIA GO units integrated into classroom systems and VIA Connect PLUS units which offer an auto-switching wired option for simple and reliable conference room solutions.  The IT conference room itself features VIA GO as the only way to connect video – usually a risky practice. “I always want to have a wired backup,” Swenson commented.  “But the Kramer technology is solid enough that it doesn’t require a wired option. I have no regrets about not adding a wired backup.”

The IT group plans to do a training program for students and faculty on the flexibility of the VIA Connect PLUS, and Swenson says they are putting the VIA units everywhere possible.  He said the conference room system has been working beautifully. “It has been awesome. Rock solid. Kramer is our solution for wireless video.”

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Kramer Products Serve Local Houston Church

“Kramer had all the tools to help us create a quality system.”
— Jason Staples | Account Manager, Industrial Audio/Video, Inc.

Customer

Fellowship Bible Church

Industry

House of Worship

Every seat is the best seat in the house at Fellowship Bible Church in Pearland, TX. The congregation enjoys high-resolution visuals, sings loud and clear from projected lyrics with sharp bright backgrounds, and experiences videos and events in high definition on three large screens around the sanctuary.

Each of the front 9 x 12−foot screens and the rear screen (for the Pastor and singers) can receive different images simultaneously. Two TVs provide additional monitor views for the band and singers. The audio/video system’s flexibility results from Kramer switchers, scalers and scan converters. The Kramer equipment manages the video sources and converts the varied input signal resolutions to the same high-quality video output. Those sources are then distributed throughout the church.

The Kramer products were recommended by Industrial Audio/Video, Inc., a local audio/video system integrator when Fellowship Bible Church began its search for a high-resolution system. “The existing system could not support higher resolutions, so we worked with the church team to create one that would,” said Jason Staples, CTS, Account Manager at Industrial Audio/Video, Inc. “The projectors had taken up much of the budget, but they still needed a cost-effective way to manage their video sources. Kramer had all the tools to help them create a quality system,” Staples noted.

A Kramer VP−8X8 Computer Graphics Video Matrix Switcher manages the video sources, allowing multiple images to be directed to each screen. The church’s sources often include multiple computers, a DVD player, video cameras, and high-definition TV. Housed in a rack in the central control room are two Kramer VP−420 digital scaler/format converters, four Kramer FC−32 DVI to Computer Graphics Video/HDTV format converters, two VP−409 digital scalers, and two VP−501XL Computer Graphics Video scan converters. These video products scale or convert video sources to the same resolution so that all video images projected on the giant screens are sharp and crystal clear. The system also includes Kramer cables which ensure the signal maintains superior image quality.

In addition to audio and video for church services, Fellowship Bible Church also uses the system for youth and community programs, movie nights, and televised sporting events. According to Steve Wylie, the church volunteer who spearheaded the A/V installation, “Industrial Audio/Video, Inc. and Kramer worked with us to come up with a system that would fit both our technical and budgetary needs. We were thrilled at how much support we got from Kramer and the great product solution they offered.”

From songs to sports − church attendees can be sure Kramer will serve their needs with high−resolution audio and video solutions.

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