CHALLENGE

Mercy Corps, one of the Northwest’s biggest NGOs, is launching its Action Center—a hands-on, interactive space for public education about global poverty issues. The center needs a top-notch, multimedia AV solution that will appeal to the senses.>

SOLUTION

CompView's networked design breaks the 3,484 square-foot space into six zones and acts as a true matrix system of any input to any output, one-to-all, or one-to-one. This flexibility is convenient, says Jesse Mejia, Mercy Corps Action Center Technology Specialist. He can show a video on all screens and monitors in the space, for example, or route a videoconference to the projection screen in the Briefing Hut. Equipment is housed in two racks, and digital signals are transmitted via CobraNet®.

They also wanted the control system to be user friendly. A Crestron® control system with two wall panels allow simple volume and routing control in all zones. As with all of its clients, CompView provided a user manual for the control panels. The system is so stable and easy to operate, Meija hasn't yet needed to use it.

CONCLUSIONS

When school groups and curious passers-by walk into Mercy Corps' new Action Center in downtown Portland, Oregon, they're immediately drawn in by the sights and sounds of the globe at their fingertips. These sensory-stimulating experiences make the Mercy Corps Action Center a dynamic, hands-on space for the public to explore issues of global importance in places thousands of miles away. Along with the Action Center to End World Hunger in Battery Park City, New York, the Portland center is the first of its kind and a cornerstone of the organization's mission. This is made possible because of a networked, multimedia AV solution created and installed by CompView Audio Visual.