Control Room and AV Solutions was tasked with rehabilitating a 74 cube Barco LED lit OL-721 videowall in Gauteng, South Africa.
Repairs and rehabilitation involved PCB level repairs to blown power supplies, image alignment, colour balance and software configuration. Also configured was a second LCD display in a different room.
A functional and effective boardroom audio visual installation need not cost a small fortune.
We were tasked with providing a cost effective solution in two boardrooms at a local beverage supplier. The client wanted a simple, wired solution capable of showing presentations from laptops and utilising both VGA and HDMI cables. Nothing more! So, that is exactly what we provided.
We received a rather unusual request in October 2018: Relocate a 10 year old 30 cube Barco videowall and Transform A computer system from an existing site to a new location in Johannesburg, South Africa!
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This request, no doubt, came with a unique set of challenges and risks. Given that this equipment was long since declared “end of life” by Barco and no spare parts or support was available from Belgium for this “relic” the biggest risk in taking on this mammoth project was damage resulting from dismantling and transporting the equipment.
Personally for me, the bigger the challenge, the bigger the feeling of satisfaction, so I applied my mind to the challenge and accepted the project from this client.
Needless to say, we were able to successfully pull off this “miracle” and I got to experience my satisfaction!
Our team was all too aware of just how careful we had to be. I knew that the equipment would be in good hands. After all, I had personally, in the past, overseen the installation of many of these old Barco videowalls and was quite familiar with the Windows XP based Apollo software and Transform A computer system, and I had a competent team.
Control Room and AV Solutions officially launched its new website division in August 2018 with a very specific mandate: To assist home based enterprises and small businesses get onto the world wide web, cost effectively.
The initiative was driven by the company’s MD, with the aim of tackling South Africa’s high unemployment rate in two ways:
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Control Room and AV Solutions recently won another tender to install a boardroom audio visual presentation and voice lift solution at a government institution in Midrand, South Africa.
The solution had to be video conference ready as well as wired and wireless presentation capable. A high brightness full HD projector was also specified.
The client was very specific in their requirement for a quality solution as this particular boardroom belonged to the office of the CEO.
The total solution was delivered and installed within a space of three days.
Control Room and AV Solutions, in conjunction with Peripheral Vision, the South African distributor of Barco, installed a complete Barco solution at the Telesom control room in Hargeisa, Somaliland.
34 Barco IVD5521 narrow bezel LCD panels were installed in a curved configuration for the main videowall which is driven by multiple Barco linux output nodes. This combination allows for the entire display to function as one large logical screen.
The content management was achieved with the Barco CMS (Control Room Management Suite) software package, especially developed for control room applications.
The entire project, from assembly to commissioning, was concluded in just over a week!
Disclaimer: No actual content from the CSIR was displayed during photography. Permission was sought prior to publication of images.
Control Room and AV Solutions recently performed some recommended routine maintenance to the large 15 cube Barco videowall at the CSIR in Pretoria, South Africa.
The replacement of the LED light source and cooling units is recommended after five years of operation on the OL series Barco videowalls.
The new generation-3 LED chains which were installed represents the latest in LED chain technology, and is considered to be an upgrade from the original generation-2 devices originally supplied with the videowall.
In addition, all fifteen cubes had their liquid cooling units replaced to allow for optimum cooling of the redundant LEDs and internal electronics.
Once all the LED chains and cooling units were replaced, an image alignment and colour balance was performed to ensure that any content displayed over the entire 15 screens appeared uniform.
The entire operation was completed within three days.
Control Room and AV Solutions proposed a very cost effective and versatile presentation system to a client in Midrand, October 2017, which was accepted, allowing us to demonstrate that quality and versatility does not always come with a large price tag attached.
For this solution, we installed a well known brand of projector capable of receiving content over the client’s wifi network, but we did not just stop there! We also added cables to support VGA and HDMI signals, thus supporting most old and newer laptops as well as mobile devices.
This solution was installed into 3 boardrooms, all linked to the client’s wifi network.
The result: The possibility of presenting to all 3 boardrooms SIMULTANEOUSLY from a laptop OR mobile device.
Of course, wireless presentations to each individual boardroom as well as traditional wired presentations are also possible.
The best part was the cost. Three boardrooms, fully installed for less than R80,000.00!
Control Room and AV Solutions, in collaboration with Barco’s control room distributor in SA, Peripheral Vision unveiled the latest ODL series laser videowall at the Utilities Africa expo held at the CTICC in May 2017.
• 2 x more brightness than mainstream LED-lit rear projection video walls
• 25% less power consumption at higher brightness levels
• More than 11 years of uninterrupted operation in 24/7 mode
• Unmatched colors, focus, and contrast levels
• Silent like never before (‘library’ noise level)
• Redundancy of critical components for ultimate peace of mind
• 50% setup-time reduction (motorized 7-axis alignment)
This 2×2 configuration videowall took our team less than two days to set up, from scratch, including the cladding, alignment and color balance.
See for yourself:
This product is available through Control Room and AV Solutions. Talk to us about your new Barco control room or contact us regarding the support of your existing installation. We are a Barco certified service provider with customer service at the forefront of all that we do.
Control Room and AV Solutions recently received a five star Google review from Chris of SBV Services in Johannesburg after conducting maintenance on their Barco driven control room.
Thank you, Chris, for taking the time to rate the service that you received from us. We appreciate client feedback, both positive and negative.
“Customer service is always at the heart of all that we do.” – Yusuf R Shaik, MD Control Room and AV Solutions
