Faith Heritage School is fortunate to have its athletic field right next to its building. Connection to their school network was easily made and the graduation ceremony was easily live-streamed to Facebook. Using two cameras and a professional video switcher makes a huge difference in making your stream look professional and easy to watch.

Outdoor PA systems can be tricky. We had to make sure people in the back could hear over the cars that were parked in front of them by other guests. Also, unforeseen ambient noise from traffic, airplanes, construction and even wind can surprise you and really affect your PA system performance. In this case, the school behind the stage benefited the PA system by acting as an orchestra shell would in a theater and reflected the sound out to the listeners. Very important also was to get the speaker system up high enough to clear the tops of vehicles nearest the stage.

Syracuse City Schools has graduates drive by the main tent. As a car nears, graduating students step out of their vehicle, walk up to the tent, and are handed their diplomas. After they worked out a routine, about one student could receive a diploma every minute. And some high schools had up to 300+ students. Do the math.

In addition to an outdoor PA System, audio was broadcast to an FM radio frequency. This way families could listen to the student names from their cars up to a block away.

The Nottingham, which is a part of Loretto Healthcare here in Syracuse, recently expanded its facility to include a Bistro and new restaurant. Part of the Bistro as you can see in the photo above, has a high cathedral ceiling and great light. Although it was designed primarily for guests to “hang out” and watch SU sports, golf, news, sports and weather on TV, our challenge was to make it double as a presentation space for guest speakers.

This meant utilizing a traditional TV mounted over a fireplace as a presentation screen. Users needed to easily connect a laptop for displaying their presentation content.

High ceilings often present a challenge for intelligible audio. Clear, intelligible audio was achieved by using column array speakers. This type of speaker is directional and projects the sound down at the listeners rather than “spraying it all over” as traditional speakers do.

Rather than installing an HDMI wall plate near the TV, it was decided the rack at the back of the room would also serve as a docking point for the presenters’ laptop computers. The rack would essentially double as a table for a laptop. Presenters would utilize a wireless mouse/keyboard to access their content from the TV side of the room.

New construction projects like these take several months to materialize. It’s important to consider AV needs early-on to make sure AC outlets, conduit and wire pathways are incorporated into the room design.

Francis AV works with all parties (end-users, owners, architects and engineers) to paint a picture of what the room will be like upon completion, even when completion is as much as 24 months from conception.