Environmental discussion

28 February 2011

The Department of Environment in Iran

When the Iranian Presidential Office built a new home for the country’s Department of Environment it turned to a local integrator to equip a 450 seat auditorium and two conference rooms with AV and lighting systems. Anna Mitchell explores the resulting installation.

The Department of Environment, located in Tehran’s Pardisan Botanical Garden, is a department of the Presidential Office and managed by the Vice-President. It comprises two buildings; a tall building, described as the main facility, that houses offices and a shorter wide building designed for regional congresses and conferences.

Tehran based integrator, Pajouhesh Gostar Systemhaye Novin Co (PGSN), was selected via a tender process, to handle AV and lighting systems in the congress building that houses a 450 seat auditorium and two conference rooms.

PGSN is a distributor and integrator that works in the Iranian region. The company handles distribution for brands including Wolfvision, Orient AV, Vantage, Tutondo, TLS, Schulte-Elektrotechnik, Medium, d&b audiotechnik and beyerdynamic. The company largely carries out Iranian Government projects as the private sector in Iran is very small.

“The consulting engineers of this project who designed the entire building had announced their client’s requirements and invited some contractors to [offer] technical solutions,” explained Elmira Moraveji, technical manager at PGSN. “They went through the solutions they had received and chose ours as the one most appropriate for their client. Based on our solution they made their technical tender documents and left the choice of brand selection open for the contractors but limited it to West European or Japanese brands. We won the tender on technical and price grounds.”

When PGSN started work on the project the building was still under construction. Moraveji says this greatly eased the installation process as they were able to integrate wiring and infrastructure into the building at the “perfect time”. She adds: “Because the building was newly built we could plan for every detail prior to implementation.”

The majority of cabling was from German manufacturer TLS and switching is handled by a combination of TLS and SY Electronics products. PGSN, TLS’s distributor in Iran, chose the company’s VGA, video and audio cables as well as multi-cable. The integrator also implemented TLS’s VGA Splitters, VGA/S-Video Splitters, VGA selectors, IPL ports, VGA 15 pin D-Sub connectors, BNC connectors and RCA connectors. SY Electronics custom made control and switching systems for VGA and AV composites on TLS-IPL ports.

When it came to sound reinforcement the architect presented PGSN with a challenge when it requested that the ElectroVoice speakers in the congress hall were not visible. “We had to hide them and that was quite challenging, considering the sound reinforcement that we needed in that big hall.”

PGSN installed four ElectroVoice Zx4 15” two-way loudspeakers at the front of the main congress hall and these are completely concealed from view. At the rear of this hall is a balcony where PGSN installed eight ElectroVoice Zx1s. To provide equal coverage PGSN installed four models above the balcony and four models below the balcony. Mixing was handled by Behringer.

Congress hall seats 450 and has 42 customised beyerdynamic conference units

In the two smaller conference rooms PGSN also turned to ElectroVoice for sound reinforcement opting for two Zx1s in each room. These are powered by the company’s Q44 amplifiers.

When the architect requested that PGSN did not use small fitted version conference units the integrator turned to beyerdynamic to produce customised units for the installation. The resulting installation saw 42 built-in MCS-Digital conference units with voting and language selector options integrated in the 450 seat regional congress hall.

Panasonic cameras on pan/tilt systems are controlled via beyerdynamic’s iCNS software, which allows them to focus on and display speakers. Beyerdynamic also supplied four MCS-D 202 interpreter units, five Opus 300 wireless microphones, two SHM 203 gooseneck microphones and five Opus 69 microphones for the congress hall. Both conference rooms use beyerdynamic’s MCS 50 conference system and two Opus 300 wireless microphones.

In the congress hall feeds from the Panasonic 3CCD convertible AW-E650 cameras are shown on a 6m x 4.5m screen. For this purpose PGSN installed a Sanyo PLC-XP57L 3 LCD motorised video projector. Results from voting can also be shown on this display via the beyerdynamic conferencing system.

Speakers at the Department of the Environment can plug in laptops to the system for the purposes of presentations. Conference attendees can also plug laptops in at the conference units with RCA connectors.

In the smaller rooms PGSN installed smaller Sanyo projectors to fire onto 2m x 2m screens. The company also provided these rooms with Wolfvision visualisers to aid with presentations.

Operators manage all AV equipment from a central control room. Ten 17” Panasonic LCD monitors allow users to keep an eye on the facility and the operation of equipment. PGSN also turned to Panasonic for a compact live switcher, four DVCPRO studio editing VTRs, a multi-event editing controller and a digital AV mixer AG-MX 70.

For lighting, PGSN decided to implement D.T.S lighting projectors and SGM lighting control systems.

One of two conference rooms equipped with MCS 50 conference system

The Department of Environment regularly uses the rooms for organisational meetings and congresses and its members are reportedly very satisfied with the facility. In addition, one of the main drivers in building the new facility was to rent it to other organisations and generate revenue. The strategy has proved very successful and Moraveji believes the organisation will payback the investment within two years.

Tech Spec

Audio

Behringer mixer

Beyerdynamic conference systems and microphones

ElectroVoice speakers and amplifiers

Video

D.T.S lighting projectors

Panasonic cameras, LCD monitors, switchers, mixers and controllers

Sanyo projectors

SGM lighting control systems

SY Electronics control and switching systems

TLS VGA splitters, cables and connectors