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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]

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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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Government and Defense

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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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Carversville United Church of Christ makes Sunday services available to all, from anywhere, with simple AV technology

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“Kramer solutions have allowed us to achieve our goal with older members and friends now being able to participate in worship from their homes.”
— Bob Fogal | Pastor, Carversville United Church of Christ

Background

Carversville United Church of Christ, located in the geographically isolated area of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, has a congregation that came together from several Protestant traditions with roots in colonial America. Officially founded in 1957, its sanctuary dates back to 1837.

A pretty, rustic church with a stone block exterior, it continued in operation until a fire burned the plaster interior and roof in 2010. The historic church was completely rebuilt and brought up to code in 2011. As part of the upgrade, a new sound system and AV rack were installed. In addition to Sunday services, with wonderful acoustics, the church now hosts live concerts in its sanctuary, including Jazz Vespers, as well as many instrumental and vocal groups which have performed and recorded there.

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“The camera is totally unobtrusive. Folks don’t see it unless we point it out to them. And anyone who can use a TV remote can operate the camera.”
— Bob Fogal | Pastor, Carversville United Church of Christ

Goals

With the outbreak of COVID-19, many members of the congregation expressed concern about attending services in-person. Starting in mid-March, 2020, Pete Putman of ROAM Consulting LLC began shooting abbreviated services on Friday mornings, using three Panasonic and Canon cameras and a TASCAM DR-40x digital audio recorder for later editing in Adobe Premiere, which he later posted to YouTube, the church’s website, and the church’s Facebook page. In July, the decision was made to switch over to live streaming of the Sunday services. Accordingly, Pete installed an AViPAS 1080HD pan/tilt/zoom camera in the back of the choir loft, above the AV closet. To get the video and audio signals to the church office, located in the 1984-vintage annex, he had quite the challenge: The construction of the building prevented reliable WiFi linking, as the plaster lathe acts like a Faraday cage, shielding RF signals. For highest signal reliability, his choices were either a network connection (AV over IP) using Cat 6 cable, or HDBaseT connections, also using Cat 6 cable. Pete opted for HDBaseT, given the 220-foot (67-meter) length of Cat 6 cable required to link the two points.

The Solution

Audio from the master AV rack is injected downstream from an 8-channel mixer through a Kramer VM-50AN into a Kramer TP-590TXR HDBaseT transmitter. This allows the two fixed and three wireless microphones used during services to be heard on the live stream. In the church office, a TP-590RXR HDBaseT receiver converts the AV signal back to the HDMI format. This signal then feeds a Magewell USB Capture HDMI card, streaming HD video into a desktop PC monitor. OBS Studio streaming software controls the video and audio feed and encodes it to the H.264 format for connection to YouTube live streaming. In addition, OBS Studio records each service to the desktop for on-demand streaming and archiving.

The AViPAS camera comes with a standard IR remote and can save 10 different combinations of zoom, pan, and tilt settings. To confirm the camera settings in the sanctuary, Pete piggy-backed a Kramer KW-14 wireless HDMI receiver on a Bosstouch 7-inch HD LCD monitor. This small, unobtrusive monitor can sit anywhere in the sanctuary, as the receiver links up reliably with a Kramer KW-14 wireless HDMI transmitter above the audio rack. For example, during a service, the organist can change camera views as needed while watching this tiny confidence monitor. The KW-14 transmitter gets its HDMI signal from a VM-2xl 1:2 distribution amplifier mounted next to the TP-590TXR above the audio rack.

Value

The entire streaming system from camera to office is activated by touching one power switch, so that anyone can operate it – with no need to adjust any levels or controls. Once the system is running, an operator launches OBS Studio, logs into YouTube, and starts streaming. Thanks to this setup, in September 2020, at the advice of state health advisories, the church was already fully prepared to switch-over to live streaming of Sunday services.

“We are very pleased with the installation of Kramer’s solutions,” confirms Pastor Bob. “They have allowed us to achieve our goal with older members and friends now being able to participate in worship from their homes.”

In addition, the church has appreciated the ease of use and discreet nature of the solution for those attending services in-person. “The camera is totally unobtrusive,” Pastor Bob continues. “Folks don’t see it unless we point it out to them.” Plus, he’s a big fan of the system’s performance, noting “anyone who can use a TV remote can operate the camera. The technical quality is superb.” 

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Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD makes teaching and learning more interactive, with Kramer technology

Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD from the outside, a place that has Kramer technologies installed
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“I’ve got a centralized server, I can administrate, monitor, and troubleshoot every Kramer device from my own desk using Kramer’s VIA Site Management Software.“
— Shawn Finch | Network Engineer, HEB I.S.D

Background

Established in 1958, the Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District (HEB ISD) spans 44 square miles, encompassing the three adjacent cities of Hurst, Euless, and Bedford in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. Serving more than 24,000 pre-K and K-12 students and more than 3,300 employees, the district currently comprises 20 elementary campuses, five junior highs, and four high schools. In addition to its classroom-based facilities, the HEB ISD has seven buildings that house administration, athletics, and a maintenance complex. Fast growth over the past five years has seen a six percent increase in enrollment, or just shy of 1,300 students. Two new educational campuses are now under construction to accommodate this influx.

Nearly 20 years ago, a redundant, currently 20Gb, fiber optic network was installed throughout HEB ISD setting the stage for today’s advanced AV over IP technology solutions. Until two years ago, the only technologies in the classrooms were SMART Boards, document cameras, and interactive projectors.

Goals

For over a decade, Vikki Durham, an Instructional Technology Support Specialist, has worked on location with teachers, students, coordinators, and administrators to integrate technology and train staff across the district. According to her, when she started as a teacher at HEB ISD 30 years ago there was “absolutely no technology other than a TV, a computer, and a whiteboard.”

To help understand the changing technology needs of teachers and administrators, a district-wide survey was conducted. Results from the study were used to set goals and expectations from the district’s leadership who stated that “they wanted the teachers to be up out of their desks and integrating and communicating and collaborating with the students – actively monitoring,” says Vikki.

To keep students and teachers alike engaged, the district had to find a secure, robust solution allowing maximum mobility. Vikki was hopeful that this would meet real teacher needs, saying, “A lot of teachers didn’t like being in the front of the room. Some teachers wanted to be in the back of the room and some teachers wanted to be in the middle of the room.”

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“They wanted the teachers to be up out of their desks and to integrate and to communicate and collaborate with the students – actively monitoring.”
— Vikki Durham | Instructional Technology Support Specialist, HEB

Solution

1,633 Kramer VIA GO units were installed in classrooms across its 36 buildings, to allow teachers to actively engage with students and wirelessly share content onto the projection surface in the classroom.

Flexibility, scalability, and affordability were key requirements for making this choice, according to Shawn Finch, the Network Engineer who oversees HEB ISD’s massive technology infrastructure, as he was evaluating competitive products. “With a district as large as HEB, it was completely unacceptable to have to configure each device one at a time,” he says. “Kramer has this centralized enterprise server and all the VIA GO’s phone home to it, so when I need to make a change, I can go to one place and I make the adjustments for an entire school, or multiple schools, or the entire environment at once. ”

Beyond the benefit of working on a centralized system, the district also needed a solution that would live up to its secure wireless network. “We require an SSL certificate. We require usernames and passwords. And many of the competitors’ boxes felt more like they were made for small offices and home use.” According to Shawn, the Kramer VIA GO difference was that “It was able to handle our enterprise-class wireless security settings, and in addition to that, it has an Ethernet port. The benefit to that is it connects to both at the same time, so we can have a physically wired cable in the back to provide very reliable network connectivity.”

Technological advantages aside, for HEB ISD, there remained the simple fact that across the long-term Kramer’s price point for VIA GO fell far below its competitors. “We also needed to be looking at price to make sure it was something that we could afford over a period of time,” Vikki highlights. “Kramer filled that niche too because it provided us with a hardware opportunity that probably would last longer and you didn’t have to get a subscription associated with software licenses.”

Value

Using VIA GO teachers can untether from their central docking station and move freely throughout the classroom while presenting materials from their own devices and actively interacting with students. “The student Chromebooks have the ability to mirror the projector as well, and so you could have the teacher on one side with, say, a problem that had not been solved,” says Vikki. “A student could project up there alongside that teacher and solve the problem where the whole entire class could see it.”

Kramer’s VIA GO also provided HEB ISD with a solution compatible with a diverse array of operating systems. According to Vikki, “Some of the competitors could handle Apple devices and PCs but couldn’t handle Chromebooks. Some of them could handle Apple devices and Chromebooks but couldn’t do PCs. This is the only one that we’ve been able to find that would allow us to use all of our platforms.”

The accompanying VIA App software also solves the problem of multimedia playback on an already-congested network. “We used to roll an entire cart of 30-plus computers into a classroom when the teacher wanted to play a video,” says Shawn. “But what Kramer’s developers did that was very clever is they allowed you to stage your multimedia content on the app, and then when you’re ready to play it, it tells VIA GO to get it for you.”

The VIA GO units also have the benefit of being wall-mountable, which is especially helpful in a classroom where expensive equipment could be easily damaged. “You know a kid will step on them and they’ll get crushed,” Shawn explains. “We wanted these units someplace safe and out of the way. On the wall is a great way to do that, or, in our future campus, up above the ceiling – above the projector.”

With hundreds of teachers across the district being introduced to VIA GO over a short period of time, one might think there would be some difficulty in transitioning to the new technology. However, that did not prove to be the case. “There was a little bit of a learning curve, but it’s really not hard,” Vikki points out. “Some early adopters, of course, jumped right on it. Some teachers have been a little bit slow to use it, but they’re getting there because they see the value of it.”

There is resounding consensus from teachers and administrators alike that over the past two years, Kramer’s VIA GO has been instrumental in encouraging active learning in HEB ISD. “We have been pretty successful,” Vikki concludes. “When I pass by 10 to12 classrooms, I’ve got at least six to eight using it on a daily basis. This is great for classroom management. It frees the teachers up to actively participate with the students.”

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Classroom collaboration gets an upgrade at the University of Denver using Kramer VIA solutions

University of Denver from the outside, where Kramer VIA solutions are installed
Franklin Jackson, Digital Media Services Manager, University of Denver, talking about Kramer VIA Collage and Kramer VIA Connect PRO
“Results have been overwhelmingly positive… Now that word has spread, VIA Collage and VIA Connect PRO are in high demand campus-wide.”
— Franklin Jackson | Digital Media Services Manager, University of Denver

Background

Founded in 1864, The University of Denver (DU) is a private university spread across 125 acres just south of downtown Denver, Colorado. The school offers over 100 undergraduate programs and more than 120 graduate and professional programs. With approximately 11,600 students, DU was ranked among the top 100 universities by U.S. News and World Report. Kiplinger’s Financials ranked the school 64th in the nation in 2015 for the best value in private education. In addition to its academics and affordability, the university is also committed to environmental conservation and sustainability efforts. It is the largest wind-energy buyer among Colorado colleges and universities. The university has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Goals

University of Denver’s Digital Media Services department wanted to provide its instructors with an intuitive classroom presentation system that had both wired and wireless connectivity. The university wanted to upgrade 46 classrooms at the same time. The technology had to be easy to use and easy to support, yet robust enough for heavy classroom usage.

Franklin Jackson, Digital Media Services Manager for the University of Denver, says that DU not only needed a wireless collaboration system but also needed to define best practices and efficient workflow. According to custom audio-video integrator Lenny Marko-Franks at CCS Presentation Systems, DU had been searching for a solution for some time when they discovered VIA Collage at the AV Expo. He adds that one of the biggest challenges was how to gradually introduce the system.

VIA solutions addressed the university’s needs and have become the standard for its AV installations on campus. 

Value

The VIA solutions addressed the university’s needs and have become the standard for its AV installations on campus. Recently, additional VIA Collages were installed in two new classroom buildings. “Results have been overwhelmingly positive,” according to Franklin. “It’s new technology on our campus and folks were slow to adopt it initially. But now that word has spread, VIA Collage and VIA Connect PRO are in high demand campus-wide”.

The excellent performance was followed by an excellent evaluation and installation experience. “Kramer sales and tech support teams have been stellar,” says Franklin. “This project would not have gone as smoothly as it has without their support. Our Kramer regional sales manager was especially instrumental during the introduction and evaluation of the products and has been a pillar of support throughout the entire process.”

Franklin adds that “the team from Kramer has been a pleasure to work with. They are quick to respond with timely and meaningful solutions. I’m excited about the future partnership with Kramer and building a solid customer/manufacturer relationship.”

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GateWay Community College complements its renovation with a state-of-the-art AV system

GateWay Community College, shot from the outside, in which Kramer Education solutions are installed
“This classroom design with the VP-729 scaler/switcher as the backbone enables us to display any analog or digital AV device on the screens with easy interface control.”
— Senadz Lubovac | Coordinator of Audiovisual, IT, GateWay Community College

Background

GateWay Community College (GCC), in Phoenix, Arizona – with approximately 13,000 students – is part of the largest community college district in the United States.

During a recent renovation, the college added 23 new classrooms, a PC networking lab, a vocational skills lab, two conference rooms, and a tri-divisible multi-purpose room. This new 125,000-square-foot Integrated Education Building also has 15 dual-screen classrooms, a single-screen art studio, and a three-screen multi-purpose room with over 200 seats. Around the same time, the college also remodelled the Maricopa Skill Center, a vocational school and division of Gateway Community College.

Goals

GateWay Community College wanted a state-of-the-art AV system and IT classrooms to complement its new Integrated Education Building and remodelled Maricopa Skill Center. The system needed to allow students and faculty access to digital AV and HDCP content in a simple-to-use configuration. 

An intuitive model that would be identical in all rooms was required, to reduce the need for troubleshooting by technical support staff. The college also needed to integrate digital and analog devices in the classrooms and reduce the size and cost of lectern-to-projector cabling.

Solution

For the classroom systems, the GateWay AV team selected the Kramer VP-729 ProScale® digital scaler/switcher and Kramer TP-573, and TP-574 DGKat™ twisted pair transmitters/receivers for HDMI, bidirectional RS-232, and IR signals – all of which are housed in a slim lectern in each room.

The VP-729 sits at the heart of the conference rooms. Videoconferencing equipment and a 60- or 70-inch display were also added. All multi-purpose rooms follow the same configuration and include a Kramer VS-66HDCPxl 6×6 DVI Matrix switcher, TP-581T/582R HDBaseT twisted pair transmitters/receivers, and FC-46xl audio de-embedders.

“After comparing the features, complexity, and pricing of a variety of products, we decided to use Kramer as a core infrastructure in designing our standardized classroom because it met our needs to handle both HDMI and HDCP,” says Senadz Lubovac, Coordinator of Audiovisual Information Technology at GateWay Community College.

Value

The relevant rooms in the Integrated Education Building and remodelled Maricopa Skill Center are now equipped with a state-of-the-art AV system. Intuitive to operate, the new technology gives students and faculty easy access to digital AV and HDCP content. And there’s little need for help calls to the college’s technical support team.

“This design with the VP-729 scaler/switcher as the backbone enables us to display any analog or digital AV device on the screens with easy interface control,” says Lubovac.

With the budget, a major success factor for GCC, “Kramer’s pricing made a real difference.”

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