Chapel Hill Public Library Serves Community Using Extron Technologies

Chapel Hill Public Library in North Carolina is more than just a book repository, it is a hub of activity for the town’s residents and the surrounding communities. The 80,000-square-foot facility includes four meeting rooms that are available for public use. The upgraded AV systems include a variety of improvements such as larger displays with enhanced image quality, overflow capabilities, and intuitive control for users with a wide variety of experience levels. KONTEK designed and integrated Extron switching, audio, streaming, and control systems to support each meeting space and a NAV Pro AV over IP system to link the four rooms.

“We had many discussions involving the best ways to create user-friendly environments that maintained some sort of conformity,” says Ryan Chamberlain, Library Experiences Technician at Chapel Hill Public Library. “Members of the community immediately understood how to operate the Extron systems, making the transition straightforward and relatively painless for everyone.”

Members of the community can reserve any of the Chapel Hill Public Library meeting rooms, which are available for use during library hours. The two larger rooms are flexible spaces with multiple display devices and can seat up to 84 and 162 people respectively. The two smaller rooms are set up as a board room, with a conference table and at least one wall-mounted display. Any room can serve as overflow for another. KONTEK deployed an Extron NAV system, creating flexible integration across the rooms. The multiple NAV encoders and decoders create an IP-based video and audio switching matrix. All four rooms use a similar AV system design that is scaled to the space. To operate a room’s AV system, the design includes an Extron IP Link Pro control processor and TouchLink Pro touchpanel with a custom GUI. The control interface pages are available in five languages, with additional languages planned for the future.

The intuitive nature of the installation allows the library patrons who reserve a room to take full advantage of the hybrid AV systems capabilities with virtually no assistance from the library staff. The library’s meeting rooms, upgraded with Extron systems and products, are in constant use and are so popular that they are often reserved months in advance.