Listen Technologies Corporation is pleased to announce that The Burnham Institute for Medical Research using a DCS 6000 Digital Conferencing System to provide a microphone sound system for presentation and discussion in its multi-purpose auditorium. The Danish Interpretation System (DIS) Digital Conferencing solution is available in North America exclusively thru Listen Technologies.
The Burnham Institute for Medical Research ranks among the top 25 organizations worldwide for its research impact. Located in La Jolla, CA Burnham utilizes a unique, collaborative approach to medical rjeesearch and has established major research programs in cancer, stem cell research, neurodegeneration, diabetes, infectious, inflammatory, and childhood diseases. Burnham places a strong emphasis on collaborative discovery.
“Innovation is paramount to our culture at Burnham,” noted Steve Vail, Technology Manager at The Burnham Institute for Medical Research. “When we decided to renovate our multi-purpose auditorium we wanted a solution that would provide state-of-the-art presentation and video conferencing systems where our scientists could easily deliver presentations and collaborate effectively.”
The solution needed to foster interactive dialog, not only from the audience in the auditorium, but also from those participating miles away via video conferencing. Audience question and answer sessions were also a key consideration.
AVI Systems was tasked with finding the right solution for the auditorium. Traditional handheld or ceiling microphone solutions were not deemed acceptable. “Burnham wanted audience participation without requiring facilitators to run handheld microphones around the room, or actively manage the muting and un-muting of microphones in the audience seating area,” indicated John May, AVI Systems. “We found an intriguing concept using the DCS Digital Conferencing microphones as part of the seating in the auditorium.”
The MU 6042 Microphone Unit for Flush Panels was installed in a custom enclosure that allows the microphone processor and the In/Out ports to be hidden and protected. The GM 6524 19.7 in. (50 cm) Pluggable Microphone was selected for its optimal height for voice pick up without rising to a height that would be obtrusive in the auditorium seats. The microphone units have an On/Off button and bright red illuminated ring for easy speaker identification. The DCS 6000 Digital Conferencing system’s DCS-LAN allows the MU 6042 units to be daisy-chained together via Cat-5e cabling. “The cabling saved time and expense because we avoided having to home run the cabling. This also made it easy to keep cabling out of site and maintain the auditorium’s esthetics,” said Steve Vail.
The new system has already been put to use. “The audio quality of the microphones is very good and the scientists were immediately impressed by how easy it was to collaborate,” indicated Steve Vail. “We’ve had two big seminars, one for Swine Flu and the other a Cancer Symposium. They both went flawlessly.”
