Birmingham Multistory

GVAV were proud to work alongside building owner Railpen and main contractor Galliford Try to supply a multi-zone, networked AV system for the 15,000sqft ground-floor of this new facility. The industrial-style common amenity space has been designed with recreation and collaboration in mind with bright, open and accessible spaces devised to encourage group working and breakout sessions. The ground floor is made up of a bar, two reception areas, a dedicated co-working hub, and a tiered auditorium for presentations and performances. There are also quieter spaces such as a library and four bookable meeting spaces for focused work.

In order to create these spaces, the client required a zoned AV system capable of supporting background music and ad-hoc events, reliable paging at two reception desks, multiple small meeting rooms with bring-your-own-meeting (BYOM) and hybrid capability, and a large LED wall and audio package for the presentation space.

The backbone of the system is a Q-SYS Core 510 audio-processing and control platform configured for multi-zoned audio and local media playback. The Core 510 provides the audio engine and control integration required to manage multiple zones while keeping operator interaction to a minimum. Q-SYS hardware and touchscreens were chosen for their native integration with networked peripherals and the flexibility to deliver custom user control interfaces.

Dedicated paging stations have been installed at each reception desk, as well as Bluetooth streaming capability for curated background music during events. Paging and background music are fully integrated into the Q-SYS control engine so priority routing, preamble playback and live paging operate consistently across the ground-floor zones.

The entire facility is also remotely supported by GVAV via the Q-SYS Reflect platform allowing proactive maintenance and dynamic zero-touch issue reporting for each individual product.

Meeting rooms and BYOM

Four BYOM meeting spaces have been equipped with Samsung 55" displays, Jabra PanaCast 50 video bars and Lightware UCX matrix endpoints to enable BYOM over a variety of wired options.

With a 180° field of view, 4K capability and a host of AI-powered framing features, the PanaCast 50 video bar was chosen as the all-in-one device to capture video and audio, as well as acting as a high-quality audio output. A selection of fly-leads have been installed for quick and simple connection via USB-C, HDMI and legacy USB-A, facilitated by Lightware Taurus UCX devices with 4K60 support and reliable extender capability.

Atlona AT-OCS occupancy sensors have been deployed to detect room presence to assist with energy management of each of the meeting and seminar spaces, also communicating with the source detection on the Lightware switching layer communicating with Q-SYS Core so displays and AV routing requires no user interaction, also creating reports on room use to guide the management team to efficiently schedule room bookings.

The Story Room

The large tiered seminar space features a Samsung direct-view 174", 1.5mm pixel pitch LED wall, providing high-resolution display for presentations and video content. A tvONE CORIOmaster Mini processes and scales inputs into the video wall, while also supporting customised idle screens so the building user’s logo or an external contributor logo can be displayed when no source is connected.

This space is available to hire for a variety of uses including keynote talks, performances and learning, meaning an adaptable audio system was required. The GVAV technical team were able to leverage a longstanding relationship with the specialist audio team at Yamaha, who designed a bespoke system for this space around the VXL column speakers and XMV amplification, matching coverage and speech intelligibility requirements. Sennheiser SpeechLine microphones have also been installed (two handheld, two bodypacks), connected to Sennheiser's wireless gateway (MCR4).

The space also includes Williams AV infrared assistive-listening transmitters and RX20 receivers with a five bay charger. This gives visitors with hearing needs a discrete and reliable means of receiving speech audio in the seminar and event spaces.

Q-SYS touchscreens provide an intuitive user control interface for room functions including source selection and volume. The Q-SYS platform supports remote monitoring and system health checks for simple management.

The new systems in place throughout this new facility have been designed to deliver simple, reliable AV across several different types of spaces. Reception staff have access to custom paging controls and Bluetooth connectivity for background music, meeting hosts can plug in and start a meeting quickly via BYOM, presenters can rely on the LED wall for simple yet high quality content, and attendees with hearing needs have assistive listening available.

GVAV worked alongside Galliford Try and Railpen to deliver these new spaces, the result is a multi-zoned AV solution that supports the day-to-day amenity on offer, as well as occasional large events with simplicity, quality and value.