Tekvox Facilitates Historic Intercontinental Celebration With 4K Drop-In Solution

To celebrate the 175th anniversary of the founding of New Braunfels, Texas, by Prince Solms of Braunfels, Germany, a special event and toast were organized by the New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce.  Among the unique features of this toast was a beer recipe agreed-upon and made by breweries in the two cities at the same time. Furthermore, the celebration and toast took place in the two cities at the same time, was simulcast between them and also streamed live to Facebook.

Located in New Braunfels, AV systems manufacturer TEKVOX, was approached by the planning team to provide advice on the technology required to facilitate the event.  “When we first heard the ambitious plans of the committee we knew that they could directly leverage the Drop-In AV® technology we have developed for our Distance Learning Classrooms,” said Jim Reinhart, CEO of TEKVOX.  “A conventional approach could cost the Chamber tens of thousands of dollars.  We volunteered to outfit each side with a DLC demo unit and a technical team.”

The TEKVOX 82200 Distance Learning Classroom (DLC) is a powerful 4K Drop-In with a fast-growing following in higher education. Featuring advanced matrix switching, remotely controlled PZT cameras, digital signal processing and TEKVOX’s ShareView videoconference PC integrated, the DLC’s small form factor is easily installed in a conventional podium.  The rich feature set of the DLC covers all gamuts of conventional instruction with the addition of recording, streaming, videoconferencing and webcasting with a friendly user interface. The DLC supports all common PC videoconferencing software, including Zoom, BlueJeans and Teams.

For the Simultoast, the TEKVOX teams in each venue brought up the DLC systems, connected to the venue’s audio system and displays with a very rapid transition to full functionality. Following stress tests of the two-way communications and Facebook streaming everything was event-ready.

A TEKVOX volunteer in each site operated the systems from touchscreen controls coordinating speaker handoffs, camera views, the Facebook stream and, as an added bonus, a digital signage stream with historical photos and sponsor promotions. Following completion of the event (viewable onfacebook.com/tekvox), the DLC setup was ready for transport back to the factory in under an hour.

“The globe-crossing event was seamless and allowed all in attendance to witness and feel the unique relationship New Braunfels continues to enjoy with Braunfels,” said New Braunfels Chamber Board Chairman Wes Studdard.

“Our team was proud to play a role in this historic event,” Reinhart added. “All of the hard work that we have put into developing easy to deploy, easy to use technology made this a lot of fun, too.”