Metzler Bank in Germany has turned to macom engineering company and Amptown System Company Frankfurt to create a contemporary working environment following its relocation from the financial district in Frankfurt to a building on the river Main.
The move sees around 300 staff working across five floors and 6,000sqm in total. A specialist in AV communication solutions, macom was responsible for the planning of the conference and meeting rooms, while ASC Frankfurt integrated the media equipment.
Metzler Bank is the second oldest private bank in Germany, with its origins dating back to a trading company founded by Benjamin Metzler in 1674.
macom project manager and planning engineer Michael Westfehling created the concept and defined the basic requirements for a flexible media equipment configuration with his team. After the bank’s official tender process, ASC Frankfurt was awarded the job of equipping nine conference rooms with media equipment. ASC branch and project manager Jörg Küchler and his team integrated modern AV technology for the Metzler banking house, developed and assembled customised multi-media walls and MediaCarts and implemented part of the wired infrastructure.
The main conference room on the second-floor bel étage can be divided into two smaller meeting units, and there are two more permanently installed meeting rooms available.
Five rooms have been provided with modern infrastructure and the trading area on the first floor has also received new media equipment as part of the install. The bank specified the components used needed to allow for future upgrades over time and integrated into the existing architecture.
In the large bel étage conference room, ASC has setup a media wall with an integrated 90in Sharp LCD monitor and separate TV tuner, together with AT-61 Fohhn speakers behind a fabric screen. The latter ensure professional PA quality and audible voice reproduction. Beneath the monitor there is a Polycom videoconferencing system so that staff can communicate with colleagues and business partners at other locations.
Jörg Küchler of ASC Frankfurt explained: “As an organisational solution the well-thought-out arrangement of the technical components is particularly elegant in that it is similar to a stage set where the actors’ performance is effectively supported. Equipment there was installed in such a way that all the cables and connections are hidden discreetly and tidily behind cladding. In keeping with the tradition of the bank, the rooms are decked out with a tasteful blend of antiques and modern office and conference furniture.”
For signal management, there is a wireless ULXD radio system supplied by Shure and consisting of ULXD4D UHF dual receivers, a ULXD2+ Beta 87C handheld microphone, and ULXD1 pocket transmitters. A Crestron media controller translates the different media scenarios in the room. Users can operate an 8in Crestron radio touchscreen to select tasks such as ‘Presentation’ or activate control of sound, lighting and space. For the clients’ convenience common room scenarios have been pre-programmed by ASC and can be selected on the Crestron touchscreen. Also available on the media wall is an integrated Crestron C2NI-CB keypad. At the heart of the system is a 7 x 4 DMPS-300 C HDBaseT Crestron presentation router, which is integrated into the media wall as a central signal management and control system. It communicates with HDBaseT transmitters in the floor boxes.
In the main conference room ASC incorporated a wireless Crestron Air Media 100 Gateway for BYOD into the existing network and the room includes a flexible partition wall.
There are two seminar rooms on the second floor, each containing a media wall incorporating a concealable 70in Sharp LCD monitor with a separate TV tuner as well as Sonus speakers and amplifiers. When not in use, the screens are hidden behind a sliding panel system made by Future Automation. Again, ASC opted for a wireless HD presentation concept involving a Crestron Air Media 100 Gateway and used a Crestron HDBaseT system for multimedia presentations. The equipment further includes a 7 x 4 presentation router integrated into the media wall and a number of HDBaseT transmitters. The media scenarios in the conference rooms can be controlled either via a Crestron wall-mounted keypad or a wireless mobile 8in radio touchscreen.
ASC also implemented three MediaCarts with integrated cable management for five additional conference rooms. A Samsung 65in LCD monitor with separate TV tuner was installed into each of these mobile system solutions. The C550 Soundbar was supplied by DeToma. A 4 x 1 Crestron HDBaseT presentation router manages the input and output signals.
In addition, two 70in displays have been installed for the partition wall, which separates off the trading area on the first floor. That is where Metzler Bank’s securities business takes place, and the 40 staff who work there can now keep track of the latest stock market and business news on the screens.
