AVW-TELAV & Bosch create a first-class meeting experience
Situation
When the United Nations (UN) requires top state-of-the-art communications systems, they turn to the audio visual solutions company with an impeccable track record that they know they can count on. Twelve years ago, AVW-TELAV provided the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency that sets the rules, principles and techniques of international air navigation, with a top-of-the-line microphone discussion system and simultaneous interpretation equipment for its Council Chambers. After an efficient and trouble-free twelve-year life, however, ICAO's analogue meeting room equipment was due for a digital upgrade, so AVW-TELAV teamed up with Bosch Communications Systems, one of the world's leading manufacturers and suppliers of professional audio, wireless, and communication equipment, to restore the room up to first-class standards.
The Council Chambers consisted of seven interpretation booths and a large, round custom-made table into which AVW-TELAV installed 67 microphone stations with flush-mounted, individually-controlled microphones and listening stations.
Solution
Although ICAO's headquarters are located in Montreal, Quebec, its delegates come from around the globe to plan the development of international air transport and ensure safe and orderly practices. For this reason, we installed six booths with simultaneous interpretation equipment so all meetings could be translated in the six UN languages—English, French Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese—and we also installed an extra booth for a seventh language, in case the need ever arises.
The 66 delegates and the chairman — who reside at a large, round custom-made table during meetings — need only to select the appropriate interpretation channel from their flush-mounted, individually-controlled microphone and listening station to tune in to the translator in the booth of their language choice. Additionally, AVW-TELAV installed flush-mounted listening stations into the armrests on the chairs of 60 observer listening stations so spectators could also listen to the meetings, in crystal-clear sound on Bosch's audio system, simply by selecting the language of their choice.
Last, but not least, what happens when one of these 66 delegates have something to say? To keep order in this massive discussion chamber, AVW-TELAV equipped one additional booth with a custom-designed, 20-inch touch panel to control all the microphones—this eighth booth is where an operator can open or close a delegate's microphone line during sessions. On this touch panel, also called a "mimic board," the operator sees a graphical representation of the room set up and can control every microphone by choosing its image in a representation. There is also a PC that controls these functions of the system with software modules custom-adapted to ICAO's needs.
Results
Partnering with Bosch made it possible to modify this microphone discussion system to ICAO's unique requirements. Bosch's existing module, by default, only showed four lines which represented the delegates waiting in a queue to address the chairman. Bosch was able to customize its system to display up to 20 delegates in queue, which would be visible on a screen by the chairman and could all be controlled on the operator's screen. AVW-TELAV and Bosch worked together to renovate and replenish the International Civil Aviation Organization's meeting environment to astonishing heights.
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