Congress: Holding Session Features 20/04/2018 From touchscreen terminals to opinion voting, congress systems are more sophisticated than ever before. InAVate explores the options available to integrators. Congress units are critical systems and failure is not an option. When delegates fly in from all over the world for a high proï¬le meeting they expect to get the most out of their precious time. Congress systems need to guarantee security, be easy to use and deliver intelligible audio. Robert Pekar, facility management director at Munich-based CS Congress-Services, says: “A typical unit should have an intuitive interface, where no IT knowledge is necessary and be a simple to handle tool for speech intelligibility and structured discussion.” Jubilee Bao, engineer from Taiden agrees: “End-users of conference systems are not usually highly skilled, but almost all of them have the experience operating a PC or smartphone. Conference system terminals are designed to be simple so normally users wouldn’t have too much trouble.” Within local government skill levels can vary dramatically says Simon Druce of CUK Audio, which represents Televic in the UK and Ireland: “Primarily this is because the variety of users across departments bring different requirements to the room so being able to offer training is paramount to successfully helping a client adopt it.” Joseph Lee from Audio-Technica (Greater China) says: “Ease of usage is important. Products such as our ATUC-50’s Web Remote Control Interface allow quick and easy conï¬ guration through the management of the units directly from any web browser without the need to install dedicated software.” For special conferences where additional information or materials are required, there are multimedia delegate units, such as the Bosch Dicentis, which enables participants to collect all meeting related documents on one device. Pekar explains: “It is possible with such devices to show actual speaker images by automatic camera control on the devices, to enable media-sharing from the presenter on the device or to have apps which helps support conference information.” Yes to voting More and more users are looking to employ voting to ease the democratic process and aid transparency to the outside world. Franz Werner from Kain Audio notes: “Some venues like it sophisticated, some are still voting by raising their hands.” Druce says: “A simple yes/no/abstain will usually be suitable but those systems that can customise the voting process and really tailor the user experience will always be the chosen solution. Customisation can mean anything from polling delegates on the lunch they want or adding in ad-hoc votes.” But the demands for voting features are not universal. Ian Wowongan from Bosch comments: “In Asia Paciï¬ c demand for voting features varies from country to country. In India and Australia voting features are popular. But for most councils in other Asian countries, basic discussion features like those on the Bosch CCS900 and CCS1000D would do the job.” Aside from the required voting options - Yes/ No/Abstain - opinion polling can be introduced with ++/+/0/-/-- or special country- speciï¬c voting functions and demands. Modern conference systems feature touchscreen delegate units where voting can be set-up for individual topics on the agenda. Pekar says: “This has the advantage that no dedicated hardware per type of voting is needed. It can be simply conï¬gured by software.” Selena Huang, international sales from BXB Electronics, says: “We are seeing a rise in demand for advanced voting features in Asia, especially for parliament deployments. More voting options are needed and we are ï¬nding requirements for up to ï¬ve to six voting options.” Wowongan says: “In most cases, simple Yes/No/Abstain options are enough. Calls for customised voting interfaces are very rare. In Asia, we ï¬nd that certain countries don’t trust electronic voting and there are speciï¬c preferences in some markets.” BYOD integration The prevalence of BYOD has increased dramatically over the last two years, even at local government. This method of working gives the user the ability to have a singular workspace yet take part in all major collaborative aspects. The rise of BYOD hasn’t gone unnoticed by manufacturers of congress systems. Mike Gu, engineer at Taiden, says: “Integrated systems are becoming more and more popular. Products should be compatible with third party equipment and all products should comply with a public protocol or standard. By doing so, they should be able to work together.” Televic has a range of ways of bringing BYOD into its products, as Druce outlines: “With Plixus in/out boxes, any video is injected onto the Plixus Core and then becomes one of the six available HD streams. Using the encoding process, we ensure all the streams use minimal bandwidth yet retain the integrity and quality required to view the ï¬ner details of Excel or Powerpoints, for example.” With the Bosch Dicentis conference system it is possible, via a simple link to the main conference server, to show content management on BYOD. It is also possible to connect applications like Barco ClickShare to share the presentation of a delegate from their laptop with a simple click. Pekar suggests: “The trend to BYOD is increasing and might become standard in the future. For this to happen, however, a lot of data security and safety restrictions have to be obeyed as the content of a conference is really sensitive.” In APAC however there is resistance to the BYOD trend. Wowongan says: “BYOD requirements in Asia are limited. Asian governments have a lot of security concerns. In certain cases, personal mobile devices are not even allowed to be brought on premises.” That being said, BYOD is not completely shunned by the Asian market. Selena Huang, international sales at BXB Electronics, says: “We have seen the BYOD trend and we make use of it in our congress units. Our products come with a partner mobile application that can be installed on smartphones and it allows you to turn on or turn off the microphones.” Security essentials Ensuring secure communications is paramount especially at high-proï¬le government/UN level where delegates must be assured of conï¬dentiality and security. Professional conference systems can encrypt the audio protocol as protection against tampering. Wireless conference systems can also comply with WPA2 encryption. Televic uses a closed network in which the Plixus core can stand alone and offer fully secure communications. Druce says: “When networking and when integration of other tools are introduced, the individual security of those is managed separately before they enter the Plixus core thereby maintaining the simplicity and strength of Plixus.” Taiden’s security measures include offering a full system backup, dual main unit hot spare backup, dual power unit backup, dual PC server backup and also a daisy chain connection between microphones which can be circled back to main unit. If it is a paperless multimedia congress system, Taiden offers GMC-STREAM technology which ensures the transmission of data such as voice, voting and control information. Audio intelligibility If the congress system is to improve intelligibility and reduce fatigue, there cannot be any compromise on audio quality. Yet, the whole quality of speech intelligibility is only as good as the weakest element in the chain. This starts at the microphone of the delegate unit, goes through the electronics of the conference system with its limiters and compressors as well as its DSP-functionalities and ends at the loudspeaker of the units and/or the sound reinforcement installed in the venue. Druce asks: “Intelligibility is always the goal… why would anyone settle for ‘good enough’?” Microphone arrays can allow more freedom to speak as they have more speech distance (up to 60cm) to the speaker and are not as visible (as goosenecks) in the conference. According to Druce: “People have tried array mics now for several years and they certainly have their place in the congress market but the common problem is that of pick up. They are designed to pick up from wide and far which, in many congress environments, isn’t what is required. Closely whispered comments and private conversations can often be transmitted into the system. The old law of physics doesn’t change – place the source as close to the mouth as possible – intelligibility wins every time over design.” Teng Shaokai, regional sales manager at Audio-Technica (S.E.A.) says: “In recent years, we have seen that aesthetics and designs are playing a much more important role in installation. The idea of ceiling array microphones offers another solution for those who want to keep the meeting table clean. However, it depends on the knowledge of the end-users, installers and consultants to understand the advantages and disadvantages to the ceiling array before committing to it”. Wowongan adds: “Array microphones are good for aesthetics. But in Asia we find gooseneck microphones to be most suited for congress applications. They are reliable and in close seating arrangements you can ensure that there is no interference if you are using gooseneck microphones, something which can’t be guaranteed with array microphones.” Chris Lyons, senior manager for conferencing market communications at Shure, says: “Goosenecks have their place in the congress setting. But they can lead to the table looking very cluttered. We are looking at ways to make sure that this problem can be overcome.” Networking makes a congress system more flexible. Druce explains: “Being able to pull off independent mic streams via Dante makes multi-track recording simpler and maintains a higher level of audio quality. It also enables routing of the external audio to breakout areas while debating chambers become flexible and more manageable.” Pekar informs: “In conference applications the timing of a signal is important as it has to be lip-synched with the video image of the speaker. This is important for the interpreters as, in order to deliver simultaneous translation, they need to see the image of the speaker to ‘translate’ their words and mimic the correct interpretation. Professional conference systems work with audio bandwidth which exceeds 4KHz to 6KHz which is necessary for speech only. For better sound quality, bandwidth from 20Hz up to 20KHz is needed – this is also important for any outside broadcaster distributing the conference on TV.” Testing testing What is often overlooked is the huge incurred cost when a meeting is delayed or when it can’t continue because of system failure. It is clear that conference venues are mission-critical environments requiring equipment that offers performance, security and reliability. Testing is “mandatory” for any rental company, states Pekar. This includes off-site factory tests as well as in the conference venue itself to test against additional challenges thrown up by the individual environment. The more complex installs are generally worked on for several years with prototypes and ideas sent back and forth several times. Once an agreement has been reached, a small test system will always be built so that all parties involved in the project from end-user, designer and integrator can understand the build and usage pattern of the overall system. Druce says: “The idea of a ‘proof of concept’ is nothing new. Integrators and consultants have been using it for years. But with the onset of networking and especially Dante where potentially multiple manufacturers will be pulled together to form the solution it becomes imperative to plot a smaller working model”. Without these working models, he adds: “Onsite time which is probably one of the most costly aspects of any project, would increase and problems that occur would not be resolved as fast.” IT fabric Conference systems based on standard TCP/IP architecture are simple enough to understand by IT teams and can be connected to a venue’s existing network. In this case the conference system works in a kind of VLAN and has the advantage that content can be simply connected to the existing conference servers for exchange of information. Pre-meeting functions like setting up a conference meeting with all delegates, permissions and prepared voting can also be realised as well as post- meeting functions like customised presentations of voting results. Druce reports: “In house IT teams are often reluctant to allow the congress system to have external access into the network, although a good percentage of our clients are happy to allow Televic products onto the network.” Televic’s Plixus network is a closed network: no third party devices or connections are allowed on that part of the network that interconnects delegates and chairmen with the central equipment or Plixus Engine. Most legacy equipment isn’t wholly compatible with the newer congress system technology although manufacturers do work with end users to ensure that all the features and benefits of legacy equipment is integrated into their solutions. This may be via software or the ability to network legacy equipment (via Dante) into the solution. Druce notes: “The obvious challenge is one of cost. Everything is possible for a price.”