MEETING ROOM
Digital ecosystems for collaborative workspaces
We design Meeting Rooms that integrate AVC hardware, software and automation solutions to physical environments, dedicated to sharing, collaboration and comparison.
The Emilia-Romagna Region expressed the need to create a Data-Driven Decision Room at its headquarters at Via Aldo Moro 44 in Bologna. This innovative space will provide regional operational teams with a new and innovative way to interact with large datasets, make complex decisions using 3D Data Visualization, and support administrative actions through easily comprehensible dashboards and images.
Additionally, the room should serve as a meeting room, allowing remote participants to effectively join meetings. It will also feature an external experiential pathway that ideally guides visitors to the Decision Room.
We were tasked with the Executive Design of the internal and external environments involved in the Digital Signage system and the subsequent technological and multimedia setup.
The project’s aim was to combine functionality with aesthetics. The Data-Drive Decision Room in Via Aldo Moro 44 has an operational/decision-making nature and serves as a representative room for hosting events with foreign delegations and operational meetings of the Regional Council in plenary sessions.
In addition to being a highly technological project, our project managers focused on high-level System Integration, seamlessly incorporating all devices into the room's impressive design.
The result is a multifunctional Digital Workspace where audio and video devices interact with the room design, creating a successful synergy. The entire technological infrastructure was designed to meet AV and network industry standards, ensuring a high level of security and confidentiality in data management and transmission.
The Data-Driven Decision Room of the Emilia-Romagna Region is designed for multiple uses, seamlessly integrating multi-purpose devices.
The room's visualization and interaction system consists of a 98” 4K multi-touch Dual-Display installed at the back, certified for 24/7 use, and a 65” interactive Display embedded in the top of the Executive Table at the center of the room.
The displays interact with the HDMI Video Matrix, featuring an 8x8 seamless video wall scaler, and the presentation and content sharing system. This enables all meeting participants—both in person and remotely—to share documents, files, and folders easily and in real-time, regardless of the type of device used (PC, iMac, Tablet, or Smartphone).
The selected audio system comprises two slim line array speakers with 8 x 1.5” full-range drivers, positioned on either side of the main visualization and interaction system, and ceiling-integrated ambient microphone arrays.
The client required the audio to meet the highest standards in terms of speech intelligibility, sound clarity, and sharpness. Therefore, an 8x8 DSP matrix was chosen to complete the audio infrastructure, preventing performance degradation even under heavy audio signal use.
The videoconferencing function is managed by a UHD 4K room codec, which natively supports major cloud video services without the need for a PC. It features advanced group framing and speaker tracking functions to ensure a realistic remote videoconferencing experience comparable to in-person meetings.
As mentioned, a capture system with three PTZ cameras, including one counter-field camera, completes the room's technological infrastructure, enabling its multifunctionality.
To ensure operational privacy, all glass walls, including doors, are equipped with a Switch Glass system. At any time, using a Triatic command, it is possible to obscure the glass and make ongoing operations inside the room invisible to external viewers.
Rounding out the setup is a Digital Signage & Wayfinder system along the corridor leading to the room. It consists of two Ultra HD displays, 65” and 88” 32:9 ultra-stretch, equipped with dedicated software supporting a dynamic content schedule operating 24/7.
Beyond the room’s physical concept and design, the core of the setup undoubtedly lies in the software applications, which provide immediate access to information and handle large amounts of data. These applications also enable videoconferences that match the quality of in-person meetings.
With Touchviewer, in its Enterprise version, users have a suite of tools for 3D Data Visualization centered around a user-friendly User Experience.
Data from the system's back end can be viewed by directly interacting with the room’s multi-touch and multi-user display systems.
This information is translated into dashboards, numbers, and images, creating visually immediate contexts.
The software interface allows users to zoom in on graphs, view second-level menus, and access specific information with a simple touch on the displays, revealing further insights and hidden relationships.
All displayed graphs, documents, and data can be annotated, highlighted, underlined, and shared with other stations, even remotely, through the Real-time Collaboration function.
The entire room and all devices therein are managed by Triatic, the Control&Automation software platform, which has been customized based on the client's look&feel and whose back-end and front-end have been programmed according to their requirements, with personalized graphics and usage scenarios.
Within the Data-Driven Decision Room, Triatic operates in multi-user and multi-device mode. It can manage multiple connected clients and different environments within the same building (multi-room), keeping the communication of various sites separate.
To meet the project’s requirements, Triatic has been configured to use a TLS encryption protocol, ensuring high communication security.
With Triatic, Emilia Romagna Region’s users can also conduct videoconferences via iPad with all available platforms without additional apps. They can also access specific use cases through custom preset environmental scenarios tailored to the region's needs.
To minimize potential installation issues, the main systems provided were tested and pre-commissioned at our labs, ensuring optimal functioning.
After completing the setup, the configurations and AV calibrations, the digital ecosystem was subject to commissioning and functional testing of the software platforms involved.
Users received specialized training on how to use the room’s features and learned basic troubleshooting steps in case equipment malfunctions. Triatic helps control and monitor the status of all connected devices and execute primary actions (e.g., restarting, shutting down, etc.) of individual machines if necessary.
Furthermore, Touchwindow's NOC is always available to the client via a dedicated web-accessible ticketing system.
From a technological standpoint, it is a complex and complete room, but it is also easy to manage, thanks to specific tools provided to the client.
In the context of an increasingly dynamic working landscape, the needs connected to work spaces are also constantly evolving.
Decision Rooms and Control Rooms are ideal environments for achieving the fullest potential of 3D Data Visualization techniques combined with large-format interactive systems.
In the continuous search for partners with whom to share a path of growth and valorization of interactive technologies, for over 10 years we have been collaborating with Iiyama, a leading Japanese company in the production of visualization systems.
