At a glance
- Client: Sunset Magazine, the lifestyle magazine of the American West
- Location: 55 Harrison Street, Jack London Square, Oakland, California
- Scope: Four rooms and three room schedulers: a small conference room, 8-seat and 12-seat video rooms with an AMX NMX-VCC-1000 camera and ClearOne CHAT 150 USB, and a photo studio built around a Crestron DMPS3-4K-150-C and a 90-inch NEC E905
- Platform: Crestron DigitalMedia 8G+ and 3-Series control, Biamp TesiraFORTE AI audio, Mac mini room computers
The situation
Sunset was leaving its longtime Menlo Park campus for a new editorial and business office at 55 Harrison Street in Oakland’s Jack London Square. The space was still under construction. The AV had to be specified, bid and bought well ahead of the move, so it could be built in as the space was finished.
The consulting engineers on the fit-out issued an AV specification for construction. We bid it to general contractor Novo Construction, room by room, and our bid became the build. The staff coming over needed a small room for quick meetings, two rooms for video calls, and a photo studio that doubles as the office’s presentation space.
That mix is typical of corporate office AV for a creative business: a few rooms, each with a different job.
What made building ahead of the move hard?
A specification written for an unfinished building has to survive until install day. Between the bid and the closeout equipment list, four items changed. The photo studio’s six JBL Control 65P/T ceiling speakers became six SoundTube RS500i pendants. The 12-seat room’s RDL EZ-PA20 amplifier became an Atlona AT-PA100-G2. A Middle Atlantic power switch became a Panamax MR4300. The 65-inch Sony changed from the FWD65X850C to the FWD65W850C.
Each change kept the room’s function and swapped the part. That is the practical cost of designing well ahead of a move: the parts list keeps moving after the drawings stop.
How did we design the four rooms?
Small conference room
A Sony FWD55X850C 55-inch display hangs on a Chief TS525TU arm. A Crestron DM-TX-200-C-2G wall plate sends a laptop to a DM-RMC-4K-SCALER-C at the display. A Crestron RMC3 and an eight-button CNX-B8-A-T keypad run the room. There is no camera: this is a huddle room for local meetings.
8-seat and 12-seat video rooms
Both rooms run calls from a Mac mini. An AMX NMX-VCC-1000 camera and a ClearOne CHAT 150 USB speakerphone connect to it through a SnapAV B-300-USB2-CATX USB-over-Cat6 extender. An Apple TV handles wireless sharing. A DM-TX-201-C carries the table input to the display, and a Crestron RMC3 with a keypad controls it. That is conference room technology sized to the room, not a full codec.
The 8-seat room uses a 55-inch Sony and two JBL Control 26CT ceiling speakers on an RDL FP-PA20A. The 12-seat room steps up to a Sony FWD65W850C with Innovox FF-V2.4 display-mounted speakers on the Atlona amplifier, plus Crestron XPanel control from a laptop or tablet.
Photo studio
The largest room runs a Crestron DMPS3-4K-150-C presentation system with a TSW-1052 touch panel. A 90-inch NEC E905 sits on a Chief PDRUB arm; comparable panels are in our commercial displays range. A Biamp TesiraFORTE AI and a Crestron AMP-2210HT drive six SoundTube RS500i pendants from the commercial loudspeakers range. Two Shure QLXD124/85 wireless microphone systems give presenters a handheld and a lavalier each. It works as a multipurpose room: shoots by day, all-staff meetings when needed.
Room schedulers
Three Crestron TPMC-4SM 4.3-inch scheduling panels on MSMK-4SM mounts sit outside the meeting rooms, so staff can see and book a room at the door.
Equipment by room type
| Room type | Count | Display | Platform | Camera | Audio | Control | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small conference room | 1 | Sony FWD55X850C | Crestron DigitalMedia | — | — | Crestron RMC3, CNX-B8-A-T keypad | DM-TX-200-C-2G wall plate input |
| Video room, 8 seats | 1 | Sony FWD55X850C | Mac mini | AMX NMX-VCC-1000 | ClearOne CHAT 150 USB, two JBL Control 26CT | Crestron RMC3, CNX-B8-A-T keypad | Apple TV, USB-over-Cat6 extender |
| Video room, 12 seats | 1 | Sony FWD65W850C | Mac mini | AMX NMX-VCC-1000 | ClearOne CHAT 150 USB, Innovox FF-V2.4 | Crestron RMC3, keypad, XPanel | Atlona AT-PA100-G2 amplifier |
| Photo studio | 1 | NEC E905 90-inch | Crestron DMPS3-4K-150-C | — | Biamp TesiraFORTE AI, six SoundTube RS500i, two Shure QLXD124/85 | Crestron TSW-1052 | Middle Atlantic CFR-12-18 rack |
| Room scheduler | 3 | Crestron TPMC-4SM | — | — | — | — | MSMK-4SM mounting kits |
Parts list (closeout equipment list)
| Function | Model | Qty |
|---|---|---|
| Presentation system (photo studio) | Crestron DMPS3-4K-150-C | 1 |
| Room controllers and keypads | Crestron RMC3, Crestron CNX-B8-A-T | 3, 3 |
| Touch panel and room schedulers | Crestron TSW-1052-W-S, Crestron TPMC-4SM-B-S | 1, 3 |
| DigitalMedia transmitters and receivers | Crestron DM-TX-201-C, DM-TX-200-C-2G-W-T, DM-RMC-4K-SCALER-C | 2, 1, 4 |
| DSP (photo studio) | Biamp TesiraFORTE AI | 1 |
| Amplifiers | Crestron AMP-2210HT, Atlona AT-PA100-G2, RDL FP-PA20A | 1, 1, 1 |
| Displays | Sony FWD55X850C, Sony FWD65W850C, NEC E905 | 2, 1, 1 |
| Display mounts | Chief PDRUB, Chief TS525TU | 1, 3 |
| Video conferencing camera | AMX NMX-VCC-1000 | 2 |
| USB speakerphone | ClearOne CHAT 150 USB | 2 |
| USB extender | SnapAV B-300-USB2-CATX | 2 |
| Pendant speakers (photo studio) | SoundTube RS500i | 6 |
| Ceiling speakers (8-seat room) | JBL Control 26CT | 2 |
| Display-mounted speakers (12-seat room) | Innovox FF-V2.4 (pair) | 1 |
| Wireless microphones | Shure QLXD124/85 | 2 |
| Equipment rack | Middle Atlantic CFR-12-18 | 1 |
| Power conditioner | Panamax MR4300 | 1 |
| Room computers and streaming | Apple Mac mini, Apple TV (supplied through us), studio PC (owner-furnished) | 2, 3, 1 |
How is it wired and controlled?
Every room sends video over Cat6 as Crestron DigitalMedia 8G+, from a DM transmitter at the table or wall to a DM-RMC-4K-SCALER-C at the display. The scaler matches any laptop to the display’s native resolution. In the video rooms, USB for the camera and speakerphone rides a second Cat6 run through the SnapAV extender, so the Mac mini can sit on its wall mount away from the table.
The TPMC-4SM schedulers and the 12-seat room’s XPanel run on the office network. The photo studio’s head-end lives in a 12-space Middle Atlantic CFR-12-18 rack with the Panamax MR4300. Tying keypads, panels and DSP presets together is control and DSP programming work.
Handover
At closeout we delivered the equipment list for 55 Harrison Street and cut sheets for the installed models, from the DMPS3-4K-150-C to the RDL power supply. That package is what anyone maintaining the rooms works from. Our AV design and integration team keeps these records, and our AV maintenance and support plans put them to use when a room drifts out of spec.
Frequently Asked Questions — Conference Room Technology for a New Office
Answers to the questions office managers and IT leads ask most often about planning meeting-room AV before a move.
Does every meeting room in a new office need video conferencing?
No: at Sunset Magazine’s Oakland office, only the 8-seat and 12-seat rooms got an AMX NMX-VCC-1000 camera and a ClearOne CHAT 150 USB speakerphone, while the small conference room kept a Sony display, a laptop wall plate and a Crestron keypad for local meetings only.
Matching each room to how it is used keeps the small room simple.
Can a Mac mini replace a video codec in a small conference room?
Yes: Sunset’s two video rooms run calls from a wall-mounted Mac mini, with the camera and speakerphone reaching it through a SnapAV B-300-USB2-CATX USB-over-Cat6 extender, so staff use the same calling apps they use at their desks.
An Apple TV in each room handles wireless sharing from phones and laptops.
What AV does a photo studio that doubles as a presentation room need?
Sunset’s photo studio runs a Crestron DMPS3-4K-150-C presentation system, a 90-inch NEC E905 display, a Biamp TesiraFORTE AI with a Crestron AMP-2210HT, six SoundTube RS500i pendant speakers and two Shure QLXD124/85 wireless systems, all controlled from a TSW-1052 touch panel.
The head-end sits in a Middle Atlantic CFR-12-18 rack in the room.
How many wireless microphones does a presentation room need?
Sunset’s photo studio has two Shure QLXD124/85 systems, each pairing a handheld microphone with a WL185 lavalier, so two presenters or a presenter and an audience question can be live at once through the room’s Biamp TesiraFORTE AI DSP and six SoundTube RS500i pendant speakers.
Count the people who talk at the same time, not the seats.
How far ahead of an office move should AV be specified?
Early enough to be in the construction package: Sunset’s AV was written into the consulting engineers’ specification for construction and bid through general contractor Novo Construction while 55 Harrison Street was still being built out, which puts AV rough-in inside the construction package rather than after move-in.
Late AV decisions usually mean surface raceway and open ceilings after move-in.
What changes between an AV bid and the finished install?
At Sunset, four items changed between bid and closeout: SoundTube RS500i pendants replaced JBL Control 65P/T speakers, an Atlona AT-PA100-G2 replaced an RDL EZ-PA20 amplifier, a Panamax MR4300 replaced a Middle Atlantic power switch, and the 65-inch Sony became the FWD65W850C.
The closeout equipment list records the final parts, not the bid.
Is a keypad enough to control a small meeting room?
For most small rooms, yes: Sunset’s three meeting rooms each use a Crestron RMC3 controller and an eight-button CNX-B8-A-T keypad for power, source and volume, and only the 12-seat room adds Crestron XPanel control from a laptop or tablet.
A touch panel was saved for the photo studio, which has more sources and wireless microphones to manage.
Do room scheduling panels need their own network drops?
Yes: each of the three Crestron TPMC-4SM 4.3-inch scheduling panels outside the meeting rooms at Sunset Magazine’s Oakland office needs its own network cable at the door, and each mounts on an MSMK-4SM multi-surface kit, so panel locations have to be fixed before the walls close.
Planning drops and backing with the general contractor avoids surface cable at the door.
Technology partners on this project
Creation Networks, Inc. — nationwide commercial AV integrator, CTS-D certified, based in Concord, CA and Incline Village, NV. Design, engineering, programming, installation, and support from a single point of contact. Call 888-230-3661 or email sales@creationnetworks.net.
Office relocation AV
Planning a Move? Plan the Rooms First
Tell us your new address, room count and move window, and a CTS-D engineer will reply within one business day to set up a site walk or room assessment — no charge, no obligation.
