Enabling students at the River City Christian Church in Rancho Cordova, California, to interact both in-person and via Zoom called on the technical support Sacramento Production Services and equipment from Shure and Symetrix.

‘I wanted the ability to integrate the Data-Video PTZ camera into the system and connected it to the Symetrix Prism 12x12 that sent control data over the network,’ says Sacramento Production Services Install Technician and programmer, Brian Webber.

‘I was having trouble getting this working on the Windows computer with just straight IP commands, and Quinn [Klarer, Symetrix Field Applications Engineer] suggested I try the Bolen PTZ Intelligent Module that he had created.

‘Even though it was written for a different brand of camera, we were able to adapt it and make it work. This Intelligent Module includes pan/tilt control as well as preset recall which I copied all those buttons to the Symetrix SymVue touchscreen. I was able to integrate it with the Shure MXA910 microphone and have the camera recall the preset based on where the person was standing in the room talking. I routed all the individual Dante channels into the Composer file and had each one route through an audio level detector and connected that to a remote-control number module. This then triggered the corresponding camera preset. It took some tweaking, but it works fantastic.

‘I am also using five Visionary Solution encoders and two decoders in this project,’ he continues. ‘I’ve worked with Chuck Larson, who used to work at Symetrix, who has helped me a lot with the video integration in Composer. With these, I’m able to create a preview of both input and output on the touchscreen, as well as have that preview be a button. I’ve got it set up so the end-user can touch the source they want, then touch the destination they want. I find this so much easier to use and explain than a standard classroom switcher. I’m able to send all these commands to the encoders/decoders with intelligent modules including the source select, HDMI CEC commands (on/off), and Bluetooth pairing.

‘I find Symetrix products easy-to-use, yet have the complexity to address all the needs at the same time. I absolutely love the ability to control every piece of gear on the network through the system; this was really important to me. Also, the 64 channels of Dante are wonderful. For me, I find the analogue I/O to just be bonus for me as I’m trying to use Dante as much as possible. The ability to patch everything in the Composer file is great.’

‘I found the sound quality to be outstanding. I’ve installed three Symetrix Prisms in this location alone, as well as many others and I cannot say enough about how good they sound. I always use the feedback suppressor with lav mics; it’s difficult to find a feedback suppressor that doesn’t degrade the audio beyond intelligibility. This was an upgrade to a system I installed around five years ago. The Prism was already there and ran 24/7/365 during that time. The ability to upgrade the firmware and put a new Composer file in was super convenient.

‘I feel like all projects we work on are somewhat unique. I try to identify with the customer what it is they need to accomplish in the room and design around that. In this case, this room was used for many different things so each of those needed to be addressed in the installation. One of my goals here was to have the average, non-technical user be able to walk into this room and do complex things in a simple way. The Prism was the central hub for letting me achieve this. The feedback I’ve received from this customer reflects that. After the training session, I’ve had no phone calls for help figuring out how to do something, they always manage to figure it out and I count that as a win.’