SITUATION

ESIF is a 182,500-square foot facility that houses 200 researchers and staff in eight different work spaces. The spaces include:

• 3D collaboration lab
• Control room that monitors and controls the facility processes
• Visualization labs where experiments being performed in the electricity, thermal,and fuel labs can be visualized on a large, high definition screen
• Conference rooms in various sizes

Conference rooms in various sizes NREL works with researchers from around the globe, and the ability to route quality audio, video, and other data into the conference rooms, as well as the control room, was a key necessity for the facility. Each of these spaces required a fully functional, standalone audio system with localized control. The systems also needed to be connected over the facilities’ network, but the individual systems were not unified on the building’s audio/video distribution system.

SOLUTION

Consultant Bill Holaday of Convergent identified the need for a modular approach to the installation, and chose Audia® and Nexia® as the best solution, at the best price. In the control room and one of the visualization labs, Audia was installed for core audio switching processing and teleconferencing. Nexia TC and Nexia CS were employed for their robust teleconferencing abilities and mic/line level inputs and outputs in the 3D collaboration lab, visualization rooms, and conference rooms.

CONCLUSIONS

Because Smith Group engaged Convergent early in the design process, this dynamic design-build duo was able to create a facility that is not only singular among facilities of its kind in the country, but one of the most technologically advanced in the world. The high level of coordination and cooperation required by both groups to achieve this, resulted in spaces that were designed with good layout and acoustics to properly support a complex audio solution.