Hampden Park – Update of AV Equipment in Conference Rooms

Requirements

Sodexo Prestige are a team of event specialists, food experts and hospitality professionals who create and deliver events and dining experiences at over 50 inspiring and extraordinary venues in the UK and Ireland. They work as a trusted partner with iconic venues such as Ascot Racecourse, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, the American Express Community Stadium and Hampden Park, and at world-renowned events such as Royal Ascot, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Henley Royal Regatta and The Open.

Cameron Communications was asked to deliver a future-proof audio visual solution for the Lomond and Millennium Suites of this iconic venue. Both rooms were very different in size and layout, with the Millennium being a lounge style room which can seat up to 160 guests for dinner, and the much larger Lomond Suite which can be configured into a 600 person reception area or partioned into four separate areas for conference and exhibition events.

Although there were existing AV facilities within each of the suites in the shape of a PA System and ceiling or wall mounted displays, for larger events projectors, screens and additional audio support was being purchased on a hire basis, due to the popularity of the venue, and the ongoing cost associated with hiring equipment and staff to operate it, it became apparent a more permanent and flexible solution was required.

When initial discussions began it was clear that as well as providing a system which met fully the client’s requirements and expectations, we would have to provide a set-up where the Sodexo staff within the venue would be comfortable with the control elements of the system and be able to set up and configure the equipment and various areas with ease.

The Solution

Millenium Suite

It was requested we utilise the five LCD displays which were already in place within the suite, these displays were receiving a distributed internal RF signal which sent a single Sky TV feed to each display, given the venue this had to be retained, however, there was no facility internally or externally to connect a computer source.

To simplify the installation and connection process, we proposed the supply and installation of the following equipment:

• 2 x Kramer VM-3HDT 1:3+1 4K60 4:2:0 HDMI to Long–Reach HDBaseT Distribution Amplifiers
• Barco ClickShare unit
• Kramer TP-580R HDBaseT to HDMI Receiver at each display

The system would allow the wireless connection of any computer or Smart device and allow presentations or images to be relayed to the displays from anywhere within the room.

Lomond Suite

The Lomond Suite was a more complex project with the client requiring single and multiple room control across four separate areas of the suite.

In addition to the individual capabilities within each area, another crucial requirement was the ability to share and view simultaneously, any single presentation given in one area, on all or any of the other projector/display locations within the suite.

As with the Millennium Suite, The Lomond also had nine legacy displays which were already in place, these were fed with the same single RF feed from the Sky box. It was requested we retain the displays and increase their functionality by allowing them to share and display the individual and shared Presentations given from within the room.

We now had a situation where as well as stand alone AV Systems we were now looking to connect any 4 individual inputs to 13 display points.

To achieve this, we selected a Kramer VS-88DT 8X8 HDMI to HDBaseT Matrix Switcher which carried the CAT6 cables and distributed locally at the displays using a mixture of Kramer HDMI distribution amplifiers and HDBaseT Receivers. By selecting Kramer fully shielded CAT6 cable throughout, we were able to guarantee the quality of image and reproduction of resolutions across all the extended cable runs.

To enable simple control of the system, we used the Kramer K Touch control System which allowed us to control the matrix and design an intuitive interface where staff could instantly reconfigure the room using a supplied graphics tablet and share presentations from each projector position to any other projector or display within the suite.

Summary

The project to equip the Millennium and Lomond Suites at Hampden Park has resulted in several benefits for the client, including:

• A powerful, integrated audio visual solution that updates the National Stadiums AV capabilities and will accommodate forthcoming technological advances and evolving needs
• Powerful displays with the highest quality viewing and content distribution to create a dynamic environment
• New Return on Investment opportunities that can be hired for use by private and corporate users for conferencing, presentations and events