Project example: New OPEC HQ
Between the venerable Stock Exchange and the youthful Juridicum (Faculty of Law) a modern building has recently been built in Vienna's Helferstorferstrasse: the new headquarters of OPEC. Even before the move from Obere Donaustrasse to the Ringstrasse it was clear that employees, journalists and visitors alike could expect facilities of an extremely high standard. The state-of-the-art technology of the audiovisual equipment meets every requirement and in most cases still offers possibilities for upgrades.
Tasks:
The OPEC staff was to be provided with facilities for conferences and meetings, as well as for video recording and editing and television broadcasts. In addition, the journalists from television companies and the press were to be offered the greatest possible comfort during conferences. Fixed camera positions with numerous possible connections, audio connections for recording and a satellite uplink for as many as eight broadcasting stations were to be installed.
Solutions:
Main Conference Room, 156th OPEC Conference
Main Conference RoomOne of the things OPEC uses the largest room in the new building for is conferences of its member states. In this instance, we support them with the very latest in audiovisual technology. The entire system, including the Bosch DCN conference system, can be controlled remotely from a control room where audio signals can be recorded or transferred to the television studio and the other conference rooms.
The acoustic equipment has been designed especially for use at conferences and has been fitted with amplifiers by Lab.gruppen and loudspeakers by Kling&Freitag. The conference tables contain a wide range of connections for audio and video signals so that a laptop can be connected in any one of many different places to show a presentation, a film or similar. Presentations can be shown on video walls, plasma screens on the walls or screens that are integrated in the tables and can be pulled out. Of course, signals from a broadcaster’s own television studio, television channels etc. can also provide images for the projection walls. In this case the signals are processed by Extron HD-SDI scalers. This conference room has been fitted with a professional lighting system to ensure that the podium is suitably lit for television. An AMX media management unit makes the complex systems logical and easy to operate.
Television Studio
In the basement, immediately next to the press conference room, a state-of-the-art television studio has been installed. Here it is possible not only to edit and finalise videos; it is also possible to produce webstreams and to transmit live signals to satellites and to distribute them to various terminals inside the building such as media walls and television sets.
Interview Room
Next to the television studio is the interview room which has been equipped with a professional lighting system and several connection points for cameras. In this room, important decision-makers gather at the round table for the press.
Camera positions
In the OPEC building and in front of it there are many connections where television stations can plug in their equipment, for example in the entrance, the lobby, the main conference room and the press conference room. Camera teams can feed their signals into various floor sockets and wall panels for live transmission.
Fixed cameras in the press conference room and main conference room can be controlled remotely from the television studio and supply broadcast quality and high definition pictures.
SAT Operating Room
Among the tightly packed buildings in Vienna’s first district it is difficult, if not impossible, for outside broadcast units to establish a link to a satellite. For this reason uplink satellite dishes have been installed on the roof of the new OPEC headquarters. A control room on the eighth floor of the building is devoted entirely to signal modulation and transmission technology. It is from here that the satellite dishes are controlled, the signals selected for transmission and communication with the receiving station established in order to ensure that the quality of the transmission is as good as possible.
Press Conference Room, 156th OPEC Conference
Press Conference Room
Supported by professional lighting and a Sennheiser conference system, teams of journalists are supplied with information by OPEC on the screens and video wall in this room. 12 camera positions towards the back of the room, equipped with audio and video connections, give television stations perfect sound quality and the possibility to broadcast immediately. In addition, guests at the press conference have the possibility of tapping and recording the audio signal at one of many positions from wall and floor sockets. The technology is controlled by AMX touch panels, while the complex video signal distribution is effected by means of an AutoPatch router.
Workshop Room
This is where all the video and audio signals of the television stations converge. Each television team has an allotted place and decides which signal should be processed and transmitted via satellite. In addition, this room can also be used as a small conference room.
Board of Governors Room
Board of Governors Room
The small conference room, into which the ministers withdraw for their consultations, also contains a wealth of media technology. Besides a Sennheiser conference system the room also has a personal connection point for each seat where, for example, laptops can be plugged in for presentations and videos that are then shown via a full HD projector. Loudspeakers, by Tannoy and PMC, have been unobtrusively built in to the ceiling and walls and provide excellent sound quality. The video and audio signals are distributed by an AutoPatch router controlled by an AMX touch panel.
