TIM is the leading ICT group in Italy and Brazil. The company has always had the ambition to put itself at the forefront of digital technologies. TIM develops optic fiber, fixed-line network infrastructure, and makes this available to the market, both through a capillary presence over the whole national territory and at international level. TIM offers consumers a wide range of services for mobile and fixed-line telephony, and it supports small and medium enterprises in their digitization efforts.
The design of a new auditorium with more than 300 seats, with adjoining control room and interpreter room for simultaneous translations, was brought to life in collaboration with technology integrator VRM Italy and Barco distributor Exertis. The partnering companies succeeded in bringing together an impressive, integrated solution for audio, video and lighting management.
Impressive curved video wall
TIM’s status as technology leader is immediately evident when you enter the auditorium of the TIM Oriolo Center. You cannot help but be struck by the grandeur of a decidedly spacious, uncluttered environment and by the impressive video wall, which immediately grabs the attention. The video wall is a 6x4 Barco UniSee LCD video wall, with a curved setup, which provides the audience with a more immersive viewing experience.
“The choice of Barco Unisee was dictated by several factors,” says Claudio Buzzi, Designer at VRM Italy. “The technology is particularly suitable for large-scale designs and it offers a uniform installation with optimal alignment and ergonomics in all directions.”
For the end customer, color uniformity was critical. Typically, the wall is used to present full-screen images, sometimes with a white background, so any color irregularity could easily be disturbing. For a large part, the Barco UniSee’s excellent color uniformity is owed to Sense X, the video wall’s automatic, continuous color and brightness calibration system, which ensures that the complete wall always gives a perfectly balanced image.
Another major benefit of Barco UniSee, is the video wall’s bezel-less design, which makes the inter-tile gap barely noticeable, even in this curved design. This way, the audience of the TIM Oriolo center auditorium can enjoy rich and colorful content spread across the multiple video wall tiles, without the interruption of a black border.
Efficient video content management
Overlooking the entire auditorium from above is the center’s control room. There, all equipment is located which enables efficient management and operation of the video wall system. The heart of the system is a Barco S3 processor, the point of arrival and departure of all potentially available signals, which operates in close collaboration with a Barco EC-30 event controller. This allows event operators to easily and efficiently present the content on the video wall, create scenarios, manage all various inputs, and edit operations related to size, resolution, or colorimetry.
Wireless presenting
The auditorium’s stage was not set up in the classic mode – with a speakers' table and podium – but with a round table and armchairs. The whole idea of this setup was not to create a disconnection with the audience, but rather to create a stimulating meeting environment. Of course, there are stage monitors, so-called cue cards, to make it easier for speakers to see the content broadcasted on the videowall during meetings, and a speaker stand can be mounted if needed.
Another striking feature: one of the inputs to the event controller system is Barco’s ClickShare CSE-200 wireless presentation system. Again, this is a technology choice that can be attributed to the need of creating a lively, more interactive meeting experience. Presenters who want to show their content without being connected to the image processing platform can use the ClickShare system on stage in combination with their device of choice (laptop, tablet, or mobile phone). This way, the presenter is in complete control over their content.
Competitive solution
“The installation at the TIM Oriolo Center in Rome is yet another design gem developed by our company,” says Marco Marziali, VRM sales manager. “We presented the best design in terms of quality and price, thus demonstrating that it is possible to offer quality products at an extremely competitive price. Together with Barco distributor Exertis, VRM Italy was able to develop a well-rounded project both for audio and video. The quality and robustness of the technology today is clearly noticeable every time the auditorium is used.”
