Sneek City Council in the Netherlands has upgraded its council chamber with an Audio-Technica digital discussion system and MVI AudioVisual software, replacing an existing conferencing setup that had presented reliability and usability issues.
The installation combines an Audio-Technica ATUC-50 Digital Discussion System with MVI AudioVisual’s Delegate UI software and was delivered with integrator ProAV.
Audio-Technica ATUC-M series gooseneck microphones are installed throughout the chamber in custom-built desktop enclosures
alongside touchscreen voting units. The existing council chamber furniture had to be retained as part of the project, making integration within the established desks a key consideration.
The ATUC-50 platform supports 24-bit/48kHz uncompressed digital audio and
up to 300 wired delegate units. An ATUC-IU integration module provided the interface required to incorporate the system into the bespoke furniture, with DVX Pro touchpanels used to control meeting functions.
MVI AudioVisual’s Delegate UI software
provides the user interface, with its modular architecture allowing the municipality to deploy the functions it currently requires rather than implementing a larger feature set.
Alain Poort, sales director at MVI AudioVisual, said: “With our integrator
partners ProAV, we approached this project with a different philosophy than traditional conference setups. Instead of delivering a huge fixed system with many unused features, we started with a minimal setup and only added what
was required.”
The design was also intended to minimise training requirements for new council members while retaining scope for the system to develop. Its IP-based architecture provides the potential to add functionality for remote or hybrid
meetings in future.
“One of the challenges with this project was that the existing custom-built furniture had to be retained,” said Poort. “With the ATUC-IU integration module, the foundation was laid for the ideal way to
create a suitable system, using DVX Pro touch panels as the control unit for all functionalities in a custom enclosure.”
Poort added that the combination of ATUC-50 and Delegate UI gave the municipality the required balance
between simplicity and future scalability.
“The resulting usability and scalability in conjunction with the MVI AudioVisual Delegate UI software was exactly what the client required and the technology now serves the conversation, not the other way around.”