The new Meriton Grand Hotel in the heart of Tallinn in Estonia with 301 hotel rooms was opened in May 2009. In addition to its seven restaurants and a spa and pool area, the business-oriented hotel offers seven conference rooms, four of which can be joined together to form one large conference hall.
The requirement was for a sophisticated media control system that would enhance the prestige of the facility, and distributor COMM-TEC worked with Estonian system integrator Digital Emotions to design a control solution which was flexible, followed industry standards, and included the capability for mobile operation. COMM-TEC’s profile is somewhat different to that of the typical distributor, in that it is also a manufacturer. COMM-TEC’s AVIT Control System was specified, with an iPod Touch to be used as the mobile control interface in the conference rooms.
Four Sanyo 4,500 lumen XGA projectors, appropriate projector lifts and four electric 120-degree COMM-TEC screens are used in the large conference hall, while the smaller rooms are each equipped with a Sanyo 3,000 lumen XGA projector and a 100″ COMM-TEC screen. Sound is provided by a Biamp AudiaFLEX. All signals are routed via a 16 x 16 video and an 8 x 8 COMM-TEC VGA matrix switcher. The video and VGA signals are distributed over CAT5, enabling runs of more than 30 metres.
The AVIT control system controls the equipment over Global Caché IP bus devices via RS-232, infrared and relays, and in the large conference room control is achieved through a 15″ touch panel. An iPod touch is placed in each of the seven conference rooms as a mobile control interface. The iViewer software by CommandFusion is the interface between AVIT and the iPod.
