news
A DREAM VENTURE
CRC stands for the Christian Revival Church, and was established
by pastors At and Nyretta Boshoff.
They are an inspirational couple who preach a Christian message of hope
and redemption. The power of their message is evident in the huge growth
of the CRC. Although the main CRC centre is in Bloemfontein, there are some
90 churches across South African and beyond. Or, more correctly, there are 90
locations – CRC subscribes to the motto: “One Church, Many Locations.” One
of the locations, and a fast-growing one at that, is in Pretoria (Silver Lakes)
where Aridian Consulting has been working closely with CRC in designing,
supplying and installing AV systems.
Aridian is owned and managed by Adriaan Booyens. Adriaan's father was a
long-time employee at the State Theatre in Pretoria, and he has a background
in (and a passion for) theatre. Before he decided to start Aridian, Adriaan was
up in Tanzania working on IT and systems design. On returning home he
began, what he calls, his “dream venture” - Aridian Consulting. Aridian offers
the core service of installing and supporting AV and related control solutions
that are tailor-made for clients.
Above: The acoustically transparent screens from Screen International
Below: CRC's impressive new Auditorium
Late last year CRC Pretoria were putting the finishing touches on a massive
auditorium to house their burgeoning congregation (up till recently they
had been gathering in a large 2000-seater tented structure). In December
Aridian installed AV screens for the auditorium, a challenging job that
overlapped with the completion of the construction. Adriaan, and his team,
went for two Screen International Flatmax 600x337cm screens. The screens
are 600x337cm, with 1.0 gain and micro-holes fabric. The fabric is acoustically
transparent allowing for the speakers to be mounted behind the screens.
Aridian is one to watch for the future, and Electrosonic SA will be taking a
keen interest in developments at this innovative and creative company.
Aridian is a member of SACIA
DIMENSION DATA AND ALLAN GRAY COMBINE FOR AN INDUSTRY FIRST
Dimension Data has recently completed a high-calibre
DigitalMedia™ installation for asset management company
Allan Gray’s new building at No 1 Silo, in Cape Town’s V&A
Waterfront.
Dimension Data were given the contract as integrators for the 18000m2
building, and based their solution around Crestron audio-visual (AV)
controllers and user interfaces. When it comes to digital AV networks,
Crestron’s DigitalMedia™ offers a complete end-to-end digital network
solution, and was the obvious choice for Dimension Data. Signal routing
to the 30 plus meeting rooms was done via CAT6, ensuring high quality
and high resolution.
Dimension Data also needed to integrate the various room control
systems, including lighting control, and blinds control. This was done
via a Crestron IP Gateway, which talks the required Bacnet protocol.
Dimension Data even created some level of integration with the Fire
Evacuation system. In the event of a fire, the central Crestron controller
communicates to all the local room controllers to prepare each room
for evacuation mode.
One of the standout features of Crestron is its Fusion RV RoomView
software, which automates and streamlines several management and
technical support functions, offering remote management and control
of every device in every room. Fusion RV RoomView also offers builtin reporting, resource usage tracking, scheduling (via Outlook Add-in),
remote system diagnostics, and an interface for booking rooms. Fusion
RV RoomView is aligned to the Crestron room controllers to prepare the
room for the meeting, based on