A tailor-made AV system – centred around seamless switching – has been installed at the Fédération Nationale du Crédit Agricole (FNCA) thanks to integrator Vidéosonic, manufacturer Analog Way and software developer Technidream.
Initiated more than a year ago, the project started from a precise technical need. Eric Cartier, owner of Vidéosonic, explained: “The client needed to be able to display at least three digital or analogue sources, seamlessly switching without black or loss of sync, in various formats on an atypical display space of 36x10ft. The whole installation including lighting, sound and video had to be operated through a single touchscreen.”
As discussions progressed, the need to develop customisable event style presentations became clear. “Corporate presentations are becoming more and more professional with notable video manipulations. Thus our client needed a more reactive system that easily enables seamless and customisable presentations including IMAG, etc.” explained Cartier.
Analog Way’s Ascender 32, a 12×4+1 multi-screen seamless switcher was selected: “I rapidly came to the conclusion that the Ascender 32 was the only one system able to handle such a projection space, while bringing the event dimension to presentations.”
The rest of the project was focused on the control of the Ascender 32, “The Ascender 32 is a powerful event oriented processor, so we had to make it as flexible for a corporate client as it is for event technicians. Thus I asked Technidream to develop a control solution that offers a full preview of the projection canvas Live”, said Cartier.
Based on the existing Crestron driver developed by Analog Way for the integration market, Technidream created a turnkey solution enabling the operation of the whole control room through a single touchscreen. Alain Diab, owner of Technidream, explained the process: “The objective was to offer ergonomic and on-the-fly customisable looks, all optimised and intuitive on a single Crestron interface. We built a partnership with Analog Way that allowed us to drastically reduce the programming time of this advanced driver. The result is a unique solution that offers a full preview with the layer positions, automatically refreshed dynamic snapshots of sources, the ability to directly drag & drop a source into a layer, to resize/reposition a layer with the touchscreen, etc. Then, in collaboration with the FNCA, we implemented the graphic user interface and control layout to best assist them during their daily requirements.”
Hervé Dupressoir, IT manager at the FNCA, commented: “We are very happy with this facility and the different partners that facilitated our purchase of a custom tailored solution. We had a pressing need and make full use of this dynamic system. In addition, this is a scalable solution so we know that our investment secures us for the long term.”
Laurent Marcot, systems and network administrator at the FNCA, explained the impacts of the installation on his daily work: “Thanks to the new single interface along with the powerful processing of the Ascender 32, we are now able to provide custom calibrated presentations essential to our activity, especially during the plenary sessions of the FNCA. In terms of operation, the simplicity of the interface and the ability to have everything centralised has greatly simplified our way of working. Before, we didn’t have a preview and weren’t flexible with live changes. Now, we have a full preview of the projection space, and thanks to the tailored features implemented, we are much more reactive during meetings. With the interface we are able to control the sound, light and video in a single place, where it used to take 10 different controls.”
“Thanks to the involvement of the manufacturer and the synergy between all teams engaged, we have developed a unique solution with an unparalleled level of performance”, concluded Diab.
