Many equipment and little time were the characteristics of the audiovisual installation made in the building that serves as the headquarters of Unasur. The advanced work of the other engineering companies was one of the main difficulties.
By Richard Santa
On the fifth of December 2014, the new building was inaugurated, which became the permanent headquarters of the Union of South American Nations, Unasur. Undoubtedly, this building will be an Ecuadorian and regional reference, due to the characteristics of its design, which was in charge of the architect Diego Guayasamín, be located next to the monument to the middle of the world and the importance it will have for regional politics in the coming years.
Given the type of meetings it will host, Unasur's headquarters was equipped with the latest in AV technology. The company in charge of making the integration of the audio and video systems was the CSI Group. In too short a time for such a project, the company designed and installed a solution that included more than 860 pieces of equipment.
Mauricio Ordoñez, head of the company in Ecuador, told AVI LATINOAMÉRICA that there were about 860 audiovisual equipment installed throughout the building. "Each of the brands was chosen because they have local representatives, with guaranteed after-sales service and a fast response time."
Intervention in all areas
Unasur's headquarters were equipped with 13 meeting rooms, each with capacity for approximately ten people. These were equipped with audio, video and connectivity systems directly from the tables. All the wiring was located inside the tables.
The building also has an auditorium with capacity for 100 people. In this was installed stage lighting, sound, eqiupamento for different types of microphones and a curtain of 450 kilos. Due to all the weight of the equipment, the auditorium required structural reinforcement to support them.
In addition, said Mauricio Ordoñez, they adapted a multipurpose room in order to have a space available for events, conferences, exhibitions. It has audio, video and lighting.
Presidents' Room
The most important place for the building is the room in which all the presidents of the unasur member countries and their delegations will meet. For this reason, the Presidents' Chamber had the greatest attention for audiovisual integration.
The room, which has availability to accommodate 150 people, is distributed in a central ring with capacity for 28 people and surrounded by the remaining 122 stalls. The central ring, a place for presidents, features 14 Arthur Holm vertical monitors and internet, audio and video connectivity for additional computers.
Each of the 150 stalls has Taiden microphones. In addition, it has four fixed simultaneous translation rooms and easy installation capacity for four additional ones. Six PTZ cameras are distributed throughout the room with the ability to focus on each of the attendees.
Although all the installation of this room was done with the latest technology, one of the aspects that most attracts attention are two videowall. Each is made up of 30 42-inch Planar screens. The set of screens weighs a ton, so they had to make a structure to mount them that weighs one ton more.
All the audio and video systems of the Presidents' Room are directed from a control room equipped with five switchers that allow to manage audio, video, content, lighting and PTZ cameras.
The challenges to overcome
The Unasur headquarters building began to be built in 2012 but only until mid-2014 was the AV installation contracted, while the other engineering companies were quite advanced in their processes.
This situation generated major setbacks because none of the engineering companies had contemplated the installation of AV systems. There was no power available, no spaces for wiring, no air conditioning had been calculated taking into account fixed AV equipment. Even the furniture of the different rooms did not contemplate the installation of AV technology, so they did not have space to put the cables internally.
"We had to start coordinating with each area how to intervene the spaces. Things that were already ready had to be reformed, such as the ceiling of the Presidents' Room and the tables of the meeting rooms, in addition to breaking floors and walls in other spaces again, "said Mauricio Ordoñez.
In the case of the Presidents' Room, in the design of the ceiling they did not contemplate the installation of lighting or the location of the trays for the cables. Therefore, after explanations by the CSI Group, the architect agreed to change his design.
Some numbers
The numbers of the unasur headquarters give a dimension of the work and become more important when installed in just under four months:
- 13 meeting rooms
- An auditorium with capacity for 100 people
- A main meeting room with capacity for 150 people with an equal number of microphones, 14 vertical screens and six PTZ cameras.
- A multipurpose room
- Two videowall with 30 screens of 42 inches each and a weight of two tons, added equipment and structure
- 9,500 meters of cables
- A total of 860 computers installed
- 80 people participated in the installation
Company of large projects
The CSI Group is a company that was born in Colombia as an integrator of audiovisual solutions and that positioned itself as one of the main integrators of control rooms in the region. Today it has more than 90 control centers in different industries, such as oil, public security, land and maritime transport, among others.
Dario Ordoñez, who founded the CSI Group more than 30 years ago, commented that his company is able to respond to large projects by attending to their particular and complex needs.
He added that they were in charge of installing the control center for the Panama Canal. They thought that project was the largest they could carry out, but the installation at unasur's headquarters has created a new milestone in the company's history due to its size, the short time to carry it out and the joint work between the offices in Colombia and Ecuador to meet the delivery date.
Finally, Mauricio Ordoñez recalled that for the inauguration of the headquarters of Unasur, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry, the entity to which the building belongs, was aware of the smallest detail in order to avoid any inconvenience when the 12 presidents members of Unasur were present.
Therefore, engineers and technicians of the CSI Group were in charge of operating the audiovisual systems that day to ensure that everything went smoothly, as it finally was.
