The City of Prairie Village is a suburban city located in Northeast Johnson County, Kansas. Developed in the 1940s, the City of Prairie Village is a quaint community with approximately 20,000 residents. It is recognized as one of America’s Best Suburbs. Situated within Prairie Village, the city council chambers, police department and other government agencies are housed in a single facility.

Advanced Sound and Communication, a Kansas-based integrator serving the Midwest, was selected to redesign the City of Prairie Village’s main facility. “The City of Prairie Village contacted us for a completely new system,” said Brent Handy, CTS, consultant, engineer and integration project manager for Advanced Sound and Communication. “The city wanted something easy-to-use and reliable. Previously, they had invested significantly in the technology components for their existing system. Still, they did not have a seamless solution. Each wing had its own system. They had a plethora of various pieces with many points of failure. We wanted to create a standardized system that could be used throughout the facility.”

Advanced Sound and Communication repurposed the previously acquired assets, such as projectors, document cameras, wireless microphones, lecterns and presentation computers. The repurposed technology was paired with Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix endpoints and QSC’s Q-SYS to create a single unified solution across the two wings within the facility. “We utilized Visionary’s PacketAV Duet Encoders and Decoders as the core technology with QSC Q-SYS throughout the facility,” noted Handy. “The PacketAV Duet is Dante-enabled, which is why we selected them for this project. Dante-functionality was an integral component of this project. We integrated 33 PacketAV Duet Encoders and 21 PacketAV Duet Decoders throughout the council chambers and police departments.”

Handy added, “In the council chamber, we are utilizing the PacketAV Duets to allow participants to easily and quickly display content on the projector and distribute across multiple platforms, including video conferencing, video displays and computers on individual desks. Additionally, the police department is unique. It has three different rooms, including a roll call room, conference room and multipurpose room. The roll call room serves as a small meeting space to enable the police department to facilitate small, impromptu meetings. The conference room and multipurpose room are both designed for internal affairs, larger meetings and training. The spaces required multiple outputs for video conferencing, annotation and collaboration. Visionary’s PacketAV Duet has allowed us to provide a reliable, future-proof solution for audio and video distribution across the entire facility.”

Advanced Sound and Communication has a long-standing history with Visionary. Handy explains, “We’ve integrated Visionary’s technology into previous installations. Their technology is easy to configure and their customer support is very reliable. Any time I need technical assistance, Visionary provides timely and professional technical support. Visionary’s technology is great, but it’s secondary to having reliable, consistent communication with the people at the company. I can speak directly with the engineers that are designing the products. They can troubleshoot any problems and ensure we have a smooth, successful integration of their technology.”

By combining outstanding value, performance and technical support, Visionary has become a trusted partner for AV over IP solutions. Visionary’s in-house customer service and technical support provide expert, consistent technical support, a unique benefit to integrators. The engineers designing Visionary’s solutions are available for customer and technical support requests.

Advanced Sound and Communication provided a near tamper-proof system with fewer components and points of failure with identical controllers in each room to create a solution that is easily supported and managed by the IT department staff. “We eliminated many components and points of failure,” noted Handy. “We also recognized that the people managing the system were IT professionals, so we wanted to provide a solution they were familiar with and, if they were not familiar, then provide them with technology that was easy to understand. It’s also quite challenging to gather all of the users to facilitate training. We wanted to create something that an individual without technical knowledge could easily navigate.”

“We’ve created a system where someone can configure the room with the push of a single button,” explained Handy. “We’ve enabled the City of Prairie Village to easily and efficiently stream their video calls, share documents wirelessly and utilize overflow rooms. In the courtroom or council chamber, an attorney can display a document on the screen and have participants in the video call appear on the same display or an adjacent display. It is all very user-friendly.”