Project: Davis Conference Center

Davis Conference Center’s AV design incorporates advanced technologies thanks to system designer David Drommond of Sound Design International. Assistive listening systems from Listen Technologies are part of the overall system.

System integrator, Poll Sound, installed eight Listen LT-82 IR Transmitters in a central equipment room and placed LA-140 IR Radiator units in each of six meeting rooms. LA-140 units were also placed in each of the two exhibit halls at the facility. “We used the white radiators for the meeting rooms, because they blend in nicely with the walls,” says Drommond. “The black versions went into the exhibit halls’ rafters, which are also black, so they virtually disappear from sight.” LR-44 IR Lanyard 4-Channel Receivers are available for use in each of the rooms. The Davis Conference Center is set up with movable walls that can create many different configurations for meeting spaces, including the capability to open up the entire space. Drommond designed an infrared switching system for the center that senses when a wall has been moved and automatically combines the audio, video, and ListenIR systems for the new space.

“The advantage of IR is that it doesn’t penetrate the walls, so when rooms are set up individually the people using the ListenIR system are only getting the audio for the room where they are located,” Drommond says. “But, as soon as the wall moves, the ListenIR units in both rooms will automatically switch to the same audio source and will both transmit the same information. As far as I know, this is the first system of its kind that has been done this way so the assistive listening systems are able to combine and divide along with the rest of the system. It makes it really slick for the people who work here, because they don’t have to think! They move a wall and the system automatically resets itself to the new configuration.”