Switzerland: Swiss parliament trusts conference solution from AKG

With its palatial domes, figures, sandstone facades and works of art, the Swiss federal parliament building in Bern is a piece of national heritage – reason enough to restore it to its former splendour. Technical equipment needed to be installed to improve the acoustic functionality of the building and the PA systems for the conference rooms were one of the biggest challenges. The 2.5 second reverberation time made it very difficult to understand the speaker and therefore an appropriate solution was required. To ensure that the appearance of the rooms was not altered by the necessary installation of acoustic equipment, only the very best experts were consulted.

AKG was chosen as the company most capable of fulfilling the demanding requirements in terms of sound quality, the need for utmost reliability and the need to create a customer-specific design. In total, five AKG CS 2 conference systems and more than 300 microphone stations were installed. In particular, the imposing conference room 301, which has approximately 100 seats, required a solution tailored to its specific requirements. Standard conference microphone stations were considered ill-suited since they would render the design unoriginal and offer no protection against accidents resulting from water bottle spillages. Through a process of iterative development, a 1:1 prototype table was created to test the functionality of the design and ensure that these precise requirements were met. To ensure that the technical components could not be damaged by spilt water, a channel was incorporated into the tables to prevent any damage even if a 0.3 l bottle were knocked over. Several more prototypes were subsequently created as part of an elaborate development process in order to ensure the highest quality and best possible performance.

The design uses AKG CS 2 DU microphone stations for the delegates' seats and a CS 2 CU station with priority button for the chair's seat. The AKG CS 2 conference system is the ideal solution for discussions because all of the important functions are controlled via the central CS 2 BU automatically without the need for an operator. Moreover, the priority button enables one or more chairs to preside over the discussions. The CS 2 microphone stations can also be used by two people at the same time since they are equipped with two loudspeakers, two headphone outputs and a "Voice Zoom" function.

The familiar microphone capsules from the Modular Series can be connected to the microphone station with goosenecks of varying lengths (GN 30 CS – approximately 30 cm – and GN 50 CS – approximately 50 cm). The stable connector with screw thread and gold-plated contacts prevents any movement and ensures maximum stability. Individual microphone stations can be connected using five different ready-to-use cables in standard lengths between 1.25 and 20 m. This not only saves time, but also guarantees increased operational reliability. From the microphone capsule to the power supply, the setup can be adjusted to meet individual requirements. AKG conference solutions are entirely modular in design, which makes them extremely flexible and therefore the ideal solution for any application.

The architectural firm responsible for this expensive construction project was Aebi & Vincent SIA AG of Berne, Switzerland. in order to preserve the original character of the building, architect Bernhard Aebi specified flush-mounted microphone stations for all tables.