At ISE 2025, at the annual industry awards powered by Inavation and ISE, Telmaco took first prize in the Government and Public sector for its work on the UN Africa renovation.

Every now and then in the ProAV business, if you’re lucky, you get to touch a special project … a project that not only embraces technology but resonates with history and culture.

Probably that’s more common if you are based in a historical area such as the Mediterranean. Greek-based Telmaco recently stepped out to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s sprawling capital in the highlands bordering the Great Rift Valley, for a renovation of historical import.

Africa Hall, an impressive edifice linked to Africa’s history, was donated to the UN by former Ethiopian ruler Emperor Haile Selassie, who hoped to attract the United Nations to Africa to play a role in uniting African nations.
The Emperor’s donation worked — and Africa Hall was inaugurated in 1961 as the permanent seat of ECA (United Nations Economic Commission for Africa).

Built by the Italian architect Arturo Mezzedimi, the building houses important artworks, including “Total Liberation of Africa” (the most famous work of Ethiopian artist Afewerk Tekle), a 150-sqm stained glass panel symbolizing the past, present and future of Africa.

Africa Hall is known for hosting a number of important meetings in the history of pan-Africanism and linked forever to the liberation of Africa from colonialism. The charter of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) — was signed at Africa Hall in 1963 by 36 heads of African states.

No common map shows how big Africa is— the African continent has a land area of 30.37 million sq km (11.7 million sq mi) — enough to fit in the U.S., China, India, Japan, Mexico and many of Europe’s largest nations, combined.

Made up of 54 member States with 1.2 billion people, ECA’s strength also derives from its role as a regional arm of the UN — and the only UN agency mandated to operate at regional and subregional levels to harness resources to address African priorities.

The 63-year-old Africa Hall —the symbol of this very large continent — found itself in need of renovation, along with an update in technology.

The cost of the renovating — supported by UN, UNESCO, the African Union and the Government of Ethiopia — was an estimated at USD $57 million.