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Medialon has provided a complete media-management
solution for the new building housing the National
Assembly for Wales. The solution has been implemented in
the main debating chamber and in the committee and media
briefing rooms and includes building signage.
The Welsh government opted for ultimate digital AV
technology in equipping the new Parliament building on
the sea front of Cardiff bay. The building hosts 60
Assembly members and their staffs for debating sessions
and daily operations and welcomes Welsh citizens in
public areas to follow debating performances and voting
results.
Siemens handled IT supply and integration for the
Parliament with IVC, an English systems integrator who
specializes in long term and complex projects and were
responsible for the AV portion.
Any Assembly member can access personal data and
assembly media materials from his own desktop, home, or
the debating-chamber desks. All resources, data and
media are digital and accessible through a very powerful
and secure network.
Medialon Manager control technology was selected to meet
the challenge of making so many digital media resources
and assets easily accessible to a large number of users
through the regular IT network. Medialon was chosen for
its native compatibility with Windows OS, digital and IT
environments; 180 licenses of Medialon Manager and
Medialon Display are deployed on the Assembly network.
Among the AV resources are 22 MPEG digital video
channels simultaneously accessible for incoming and
outgoing contents from the assembly building, broadcast
transmission of sessions and events, and live feeds of
public gallery signage screens. Working space can easily
be rearranged to flexibly adapt to the type and number
of people in the audience with automatic reconfiguration
of the AV resources management.
Each desk in the new debating chamber is outfitted with
a computer running Medialon Manager control technology,
which gives delegates, ministers and officers access to
all materials needed during a debate including the
Internet and his personal mailbox. A simple messaging
feature enables delegates to communicate inside the
chamber.
All of the desks are connected to Medialon Manager, via
Manager On Network devices, for AV resources management.
The Assembly’s Presiding Officer (PO) has control of all
AV resources in the chamber and can display on four main
LCD big screens and the delegate screens DVD content, TV
channels, Web pages, any document stored on building
servers, video conferences, and broadcast signals.
In addition, Medialon Manager control technology is
linked to a Televic Voting System. During a vote the PO
has a complete overview of voting status. When a ote is
closed the PO can display vote results on the main
screens and delegate creens; the tabulations are also
written in a SQL database and can be fed to igital
signage for public viewing.
Each of three committee rooms and a media briefing room
contains a touchscreen unning Medialon PANEL graphical
user interface. Depending on the room operation mode
selected on the main AV controller, the PANEL proposes
different controal and monitors user pages. The panels
provide control of AV resources, through Medialon,
including DVDs, TV channels, video conferences, and
broadcast signals which can be displayed on big screens.
Medialon is also connected to the room-booking system
database. It publishes to the AV panel and to a Clock
Display Manager Panel current meeting information in
both English and Welsh. It also provides technical
information and allows, for example, use of the video
conferencing resource. A simpler configuration is
present in the Member’s Tea Room as well; it displays
DVDs, TV channels and building broadcast or plays audio
CDs. A general overview of meetings in progress in each
room is also available via room-booking system
information.
Finally, the building’s multimedia signage is based on
Medialon Manager control technology. Four Medialon
Medialon Manager control systems and 70 Medialon Display
Players (MDP) integrated in the new MDP box have been
installed to display current meeting and building
orientation information and to stream video. Some MDPs
are also used as interactive kiosks.
"The impressive IVC-designed building-wide AV IT
solution recently completed at the new National Assembly
for Wales is a world leading example of merging many
technologies on to a single common infrastructure.
Medialon were approached by IVC to supply the software
for this solution as their products could be tailored to
suit the environment rather than designing software
solutions from the ground up. This meant much less
development time was required and the end product would
fully integrate with XP platforms. We were responsible
for the design, development and integration of all AV IT
facilities and worked very closely with Siemens to
ensure that the network facilities provided would
support what we intended to deliver. Medialon's
experience and expertise of their technical staff was
excellent and we would be delighted to embark on such a
solution with them again in the future." said Jim
Maynard, IVC Project Engineer.
If you wish more information on the project or companies
involved, please follow these links:
www.wales.gov.uk,
www.bbc.co.uk,
www.sbs.siemens.co.uk,
www.ivc.uk.com |
