CLIFFSIDE, NORTH CAROLINA – AUGUST 2013:
Duke Energy’s Cliffside Steam Station dates back to the 1930s. It was renovated several times over the decades. It’s most recent renovation, costing nearly $2 billion and incorporating advanced pollution control technologies, went on line recently. The project also included major upgrades to the 1930s-era office space and conference room. The 75-seat venue is now fully-modernized based on a teleconferencing system built around a SymNet Edge Dante network audio DSP, with four-channel AEC card providing state-of-the-art acoustic echo cancellation and noise reduction.
A/V integration firm A Sound Experience of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, designed and installed the system. “Duke is an enormous company and they perform training in different locations,” said Preston Hinson, owner of A Sound Experience. “They required an easy way to assemble people and the conference room was the place to do it.” Even before Duke officials requested teleconferencing capabilities, Hinson had planned to use a SymNet Edge DSP for the room’s audio processing and sound reinforcement. His decision was based on the ease of design and configuration with SymNet Composer software and the fact that SymNet Edge is Dante network enabled. “It’s a large building and there were a lot of scenarios they want to explore in the future,” said Hinson. “We wanted to give them a Dante system so that we can move audio with simple CAT5 wiring which, combined with SymNet Edge, future proofs the system.”
A video presentation system for training was the driver for the conference room renovation. “They didn’t think they had the budget for teleconferencing,” said Hinson. “But with the SymNet Edge frame as the basis for the design, it was a simple and cost-effective to add a SymNet AEC Card to the Edge frame’s modular I/O structure. That relatively small addition gave them all of the hardware and software necessary for state-of-the-art teleconferencing, including acoustic echo cancellation. The result was clean, clear, intelligible audio in the Cliffside room and in the remote locations it connects to.”
Inputs to the system include wireless lavalier and handheld microphones, remote location audio, a DVD player, and VGA and HDMI video. URC KP 4000 in-wall touch panels control A/V source selection, as well as individual and overall volumes. Self-powered ISP Technology SM 650B/W loudspeakers fill the room with sound, and a BenQ 6000 lumen projector delivers crisp video. A Furman sequencer powers the system.
“The system was designed to be simple and end-user friendly – it’s transparent and straightforward,” said Hinson. “There’s a lot of processing going on inside the SymNet Edge and the AEC card that makes it simple and robust. If Duke wants to expand the system in the future, it will be easy for us to move audio via Dante on CAT5 cable.”
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