A New Way for Your Network to Improve Communication

Business today moves at the speed of information.  Each employee is wired into a network backbone allowing for communication and collaboration regardless of physical location.  Network infrastructure has become a key for every business to facilitate the ability to pass information at will wherever it needs to go.

That existing network has become much more influential to our businesses as more and more devices are connecting to it.  Now the office printers and even our phone systems are network based.  The same is true for audio visual equipment.  Devices that are network capable are becoming the standard in A/V making it easier to communicate for all Audio Visual devices over your company network.  But that’s just where it begins.  In addition to being able to use the touch panel on your conference room wall to have the screen drop and turn on the projector, we are also able to pass live audio and video signals across the network.

This network based audio solution is what ICS, in conjunction with Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc., has provided for the new expansion to the San Jose Convention Center.  The idea behind the network audio system is simple: there are dozens of possible configurations for the divisible meeting spaces, each meeting space area has multiple places to connect an audio source (microphone, iPod, Blu-Ray player, etc.) and multiple places to send that audio (like a local powered speaker or recording device).  The challenge that had to be overcome was with so many possible input locations trying to potentially reach so many output locations is, how could we find a way to make it easy to route those signals anywhere we needed them to go?  By implementing an Audinate ‘Dante’ network audio solution with system components including the Atterotech unDX2IO, MediaMatrix NiON n6, a Crestron Pro3 control system, and HP 10 gigabit network switches we were able to provide simple control for all signal routing across the network.  With the click of a mouse, a technician has the ability to route a single microphone to any designated area or combination of areas they wish for the given event.  In order to accomplish this with analog audio technology, it would have required that all signals, and thus cables, route back to a centralized room with 6’ tall racks completely filled with nothing but patch bays forcing them to physically connect a cable (just like the old phone system operators) to pass that sound to where it needed to go.

So why is this network audio solution so significant?  Let’s go back to how businesses are currently operating.  With businesses having locations with multiple conference rooms, remote locations and employees, by utilizing a network audio solution you are no longer limited to passing that audio signal just to a local area.  Now you can use your company’s existing network to send sound to any location that is capable of receiving that digital signal.  Just as a remote worker plugs in a laptop to connect to your local data system, they can now plug in an audio receiver making the conversation and information clearer and pushing your business farther and faster.

For more information on how a network audio solution could help your business, please feel free to contact ICS Integrated Communication Systems at 408-491-6000.