The story of a bank CIO, a rapidly approaching shareholder meeting, and an auditorium in need of an InGenius solution.
It was late September in the throes of a pandemic and the bank’s CIO, David, needed to update an auditorium to run Zoom for a shareholders meeting that was only one month away. He needed a room design, hardware, and installation; and he needed it now.
“What I wanted is consistency in our support. It is not an expertise that we have; in-house video systems can be very problematic. And I knew if it was my guys trying to piece it together then we’d be fighting issues and missteps all along the way.
So, what I was looking for is someone who can help us roll this out across about a dozen locations that we want to do. I didn’t want to have this turn into a support nightmare.”
The task was simple, find a vendor that could deliver exactly what he wanted, but he soon discovered the difficulty in checking that off the list.
“We started a search for a vendor, went through several exercises and thought we had found a vendor. And then when we got ready to pull the trigger, they told us their scheduling was two months out!”
The bank was now in a scramble, the clock was ticking and a very tight deadline was looming. He needed an InGenius Solution.
“The biggest standout points with InGenius was flexibility and speed to delivery. We had struggles there, especially at this time period, and I think both Starin and InGenius moved heaven and earth to try to deliver.”
In just 4 weeks we had tapped into our nationwide network of certified ProAV installers and had boots on the ground ready to go. The hardware, supplied by Starin, was delivered and waiting patiently to be built.
“The problem elsewhere is there are lots of promises and very little delivery. It was quickly into conversations with both Starin & InGenius that I got very comfortable, after previously talking to 3 others. So, you can talk to others… but when it comes down to delivery, I think both companies are top-notch.
The Design
- Two 98” Front of House Displays
- Two 49” Confidence Monitors (visible to the presenter)
- AVer520PRO Audience Camera
- HuddleCam SpeakerTrack2 Tracking Camera
- QSC DSP and AMP
- 12x speakers
- 1x wireless bodypack microphone
- 1x podium microphone
- 3x Shure MXA910 ceiling arrays
All wired to a Humble Room PC.
The Implementation
We got to work removing old equipment, hanging displays, and installing mounts. Delivery delays pushed the install into the weekend and we worked tirelessly through it to make sure the deadline would not be missed.
On that Saturday, we heard the sound of silence as the client’s existing amp and speakers completely quit. That didn’t stop us.
We ran into a problem with some existing hardware and it was originally our goal to try to use some of it… [The room] wasn’t video-enabled, but it had speakers, amplifiers, and all of that. And it turns out that stuff had not been used in a long time and wasn’t working. So that caused a fire at the last minute.
“I was impressed with your lead installer, in particular, going and finding an alternative to get it up and running before he left. Then very quickly service techs returned within a week to replace the speakers and the amplifier. That’s the kind of stuff that really hits home that we found the right partners.”
The room had been transformed from its previous state to a fully built and tested Zoom solution in only one short week. No small feat, given the long history of the Mattoon Corporate Masonic building, which dates back to 1929.
As the board members entered the historical building, the bank was dressed to impress for their shareholder meeting and the excitement was palpable. The auditorium had been modernized for unified communications:
“It was really a “shock and awe” moment when the board members first went in there and started seeing what they could do.”
Another successful installation! At InGenius, we constantly seek to improve all of our processes both internal and external. So our final question to David was what could we have done to improve his experience?
“I would be very honest if there were any downsides I could share with you, but I’m nothing but pleased.”
First Mid Bank CTO