Westin Long Beach Hotel Hosts Local Businesses and Events in High-Tech Meeting Space Protected by Furman

Competition is stiff among hotels that want to host events and corporate meetings for local businesses. To attract the event planners and meeting managers, the Westin Long Beach Hotel in Long Beach, California, recently transformed its large ballroom into a 4-room convertible space with divisible walls. To further enhance the space, the hotel turned to local integration firm Spinitar to incorporate the latest audio system and technology. According to Rudy Zavala, Associate Systems Designer at the firm, the goal of the installation came down to three things: simplicity, functionality and reliability.

“One big ballroom is great if you want to host large receptions or conferences, but the ability to split the space into four smaller rooms offers the hotel greater revenue opportunities and opens access to smaller parties and budgets,” Zavala explained. “But it’s not as simple as just putting in some convertible walls. Separate rooms mean you need separate audio systems and control interfaces that can also function as a single unit when the room is fully open for a larger event. To do this we used QSC’s Core 500i network audio solution backed by the protection of a BlueBOLT-enabled Furman F1500-UPS to ensure smooth, effortless operation 365 days a year.”

Routing all the power through the Furman UPS boasts multiple advantages. Utilizing the BlueBOLT cloud-based power, energy and network management platform, the device enables Spintar to access the equipment at its power source from anywhere in the world using any Web-enabled device. In case of a locked-up device or system power issue, the integrators can do remote hard resets of the touch panels, amplifiers and network switcher, even the entire QSC system if needed, greatly reducing service calls. This provides efficiency for both the hotel and the integrator, saving them time, money and frustration.

Featuring Furman’s advanced Series Multi-Stage Protection (SMP) surge/spike protection circuit, Extreme Voltage Shutdown (EVS) and Linear Filtering Technology (LiFT), the F1500-UPS provides the hotel with professional-level protection, filtration and backup combined with features engineered specifically for the needs of A/V systems. Fully programmable, the unit features an intuitive LCD front panel interface, which displays valuable system and diagnostic information, such as battery time remaining based on current load and voltage input/output. Additionally, critical load management capabilities allow hotel employees to prioritize allocations of battery power to connected equipment while the unit’s programmable IR blasters provide safe shutdown of remotely based equipment.

“Easy-to-use is an all encompassing term,” Zavala concluded. “This means that guests must be able to walk in to the space and use the system right away, every time. Additionally, the hotel managers and staff should be able to operate the meeting rooms without worrying about complicated technology. The GUI we created for the audio system is a floorplan of the space, with each touch panel opening up to its section of the room, and all the other sections are available by simply flipping to the next page of the interface. This way presenters can quickly use the input panels to hook up a microphone, iPod, or video player to one section or the whole room, while setting volumes for each specific area.”

Best of all, the system is designed to be easy-to-use for the integrators themselves. Incorporating the Furman F1500-UPS into the system simplifies the configuration, ultimately saving Zavala and his team time and money through BlueBOLT remote power management.

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Integrator Relies on Furman CN Series for a Firm AV Foundation for Every Installation

For all of the amazing technology that is available today for sophisticated AV systems, it is the foundational, core-system items that everything else depends upon. That wisdom is not lost on Audio Visual Associates, a Denville, New Jersey full-service AV systems design and integration provider, founded in 1968 and specializing in the design, sale, service, installation, and rental of equipment typically found in the corporate, hospitality, education and other AV environments. That’s why virtually every project the company takes on utilizes in its design one of the Contractor Series of SmartSequencer™ products from Furman, the leading provider of power management systems.

“About sixty percent of our work comes from the corporate sector, and another ten percent from education, with the rest in other types of environments,” estimates Seung Yoon (DMC-E), System Engineer at Audio Visual Associates. “But virtually all of them will use one of the CN Series of sequenced power management units, the CN-1800 or the CN-2400. These are at the heart of our designs, because they protect our clients’ investments in their AV systems. It’s critical to protecting them that every component in every system be turned on and off in a very specific sequence. The CN Series products make certain that our programmed sequences are followed exactly, every time. This is becoming especially important as AV and IT systems converge — more of the systems we design and install include elements like network switches along with components such as DSP processors and amplifiers. To function correctly they need to be powered up and down in a controlled manner. Furman makes sure that happens.”

Two recent projects underscore how Furman SmartSequencers are critical to protecting the rest of the components in both AV and control systems. The Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, in Livingston, NJ is a private school that serves 736 students in grades PK/K-12. The school puts an extraordinary emphasis on a low teacher to student ratio, with eight students for every full-time equivalent teacher, compared with the New Jersey average of 13 students per full-time equivalent teacher. Teachers at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy need to focus on education, not on running projectors and sound systems, and the Furman CN-2400 units that Audio Visual Associates included in the AV systems they installed in the school’s auditorium not only provide excellent system performance, with features such as Furman’s Linear Filtering Technology (LiFT) that ensures maximum performance from connected equipment by reducing AC noise evenly across the audio & video bandwidth, but also protect the entire system with functionality like Furman’s Extreme Voltage Shutdown. EVS safeguards AV systems from catastrophic under-voltage (under 80V sustained) or over-voltage (over 145V sustained) conditions. And Furman keeps it simple: Security covers and sequence on/off keyswitch prevent unauthorized personnel from running/shutting down system or tampering with DIP switches. “We installed the CN-2400 as a critical part of the entire AV and control system so that everything in the school auditorium’s racks and control room start up and power off in the correct sequence,” Yoon explains. “It protects their investment and lets their teachers concentrate on their educational tasks.”

Another Audio Visual Associates project slated to take place in the near future will see several CN-1800 and CN-2400 units installed in practice and ensemble rooms at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall. These will power-up AV systems in each of the rooms in the proper sequence, allowing teachers and students to concentrate on their studies while vigilantly protecting those systems. “As with any of the systems we design and integrate, the user simply presses a button on a touch panel,” says Yoon. “The Furman controller turns on and off components like amplifiers, DVD players and DSP processors in exactly the right sequence with exactly the right interval between them. The great thing is that the user never knows it’s even in there. But it is, protecting their investment and making their lives easier. The CN Series is the one element of the system that makes sure all the rest of them are safe.”