As part of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce, Gateway is an innovation hub for companies looking to extend their success in the U.S. Offering a wide range of services, including events, business matchmaking and top-tier technology, the organization recently set out to expand its services with a fully integrated, world-class conferencing and technology demonstration center. Barco built an integrated, engaging meeting experience across the facility based on its award-winning wireless collaboration product ClickShare and by collaborating with a vast network of Alliance partners.
As a result, Gateway is now the state-of-the-art co-working and innovation hub in New York City, located on the 29th floor of 900 Third Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan. As part of the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce (SACCNY), Gateway’s mission is to help Scandinavian companies gain a strategic foothold and become more successful in the U.S. market.
Technology showcase
Gateway opened its doors in January 2019 as a launchpad for Scandinavian businesses, start-ups and innovators. The center provides members everything they need to help accelerate their success — whether it’s business matchmaking, service-oriented partnerships, or desk and event space. To expand the services of the chamber and the functionality of the available space, SACCNY wanted to introduce a state-of-the-art meeting space. The chamber engaged technology evangelist Greg Harper of Harpervision Associates, who called upon Barco to build a true showcase area for world-class conferencing technology, in a beautiful working environment right at the heart of Manhattan.
In addition to its wide portfolio of visualization and collaboration solutions for the workplace, Barco also relied on its vast network of ClickShare Alliance partners to equip the Gateway facility with the latest meeting room audio and video solutions. For Barco and its Alliance Partners, Gateway offers an ideal technology showcase to demonstrate the quality, functionality, and efficiency of ground-breaking products. Implementation of the state-of-the-art demonstration center started in 2020 and was completed in March 2021.
Agnostic, wireless video conferencing
Offering a breathtaking view on New York City, the most striking showcase room within the 20,000 square foot facility is Room with a View, which provides videoconferencing space for up to 12 people. It features a bright 14-feet Barco X1.2 LED video wall, which is driven by a Barco E2 presentation switcher, handling all the processing and offering flexible layouts. The room also has advanced Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 microphones, QSC PTZ auto-tracking cameras, and Barco's ClickShare Conference wireless conferencing solution, which is combined with the Q-SYS cloud-manageable audio, video and control platform from QSC. The ClickShare/Q-SYS combination offers meeting users the choice between having a call in a dedicated Zoom Room or Teams Room and using any other UC&C platform required for the conference via Bring Your Own Meeting technology (BYOM).
“The Room with a View is a perfect showcase of how Barco ClickShare seamlessly integrates with Zoom Rooms and Teams Rooms,” says Johan Pirot (Head of MX Initiatives & Strategic Partnerships at Barco). “Via the QSC touch panel, meeting organizers can simply switch from their Zooms Room or Teams Room meeting to a fully agnostic BYOM meeting from their laptop, while they are still making use of the room’s great audio and video peripherals.”
Board Room with premium audio and video
The Board Room is one of Gateway’s larger rooms, providing seating for 18 people. The space features a 16-feet Barco UniSee LCD video wall, which offers perfectly balanced brightness and colors at all times. In the Board Room two advanced Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 microphones are used to drive a 1 Beyond Autotracker system, which has seven built-in cameras and is able to track and switch cameras based on the location of the audio source. There are two cameras on the left side of the room facing the right side, two cameras on the right side facing the left side, and three cameras at the center pointed at the end tables, the head of the table and a default wide shot. Also here, Barco's ClickShare Conference enables wireless content sharing from the user’s own device from any UC&C platform.
“With so many different organizations and visitors making use of Gateway’s facilities, offering an agnostic meeting experience makes perfect sense,” says Greg Harper. “Now, any internal staff member or external visitor can enjoy the facility’s high-end audio and video, whether they prefer to work from their laptop or make use of the in-room meeting system.”
From high-end room to huddle space
Barco’s ClickShare Conference is also available for use in Gateway’s many smaller huddle spaces and in the Event Room, which offers room for 60 seats or 100 people standing. While the Event Room was not able to be used for many months due to the pandemic, Gateway is eager to resume its in-person events, which before the pandemic, were held approximately 2-3 times per week.
“At Gateway we are able to truly demonstrate our capabilities for a wide range of meeting and conferencing needs,” says Anna Throne-Holst (President at SACCNY). “Whether our users want to meet in one of the huddle spaces, the Board Room or the Event Room, Barco has enabled us to offer the same high-quality, immersive meeting experience throughout.”
“The Gateway project illustrates that by joining forces with some of the top players in the AV industry, we can build truly engaging meeting experiences with BYOM in an outstanding audio environment and with the best-in-class control & tracking cameras,” says Johan Pirot.
“Gateway is an ideal platform for Barco where meeting users can experience how well ClickShare integrates with other types of meeting room technology,” says Greg Harper. “I am happy to contribute to this living lab. It’s a space where people can get to know the many possibilities of ClickShare wireless presentation and conferencing. For Barco, Gateway also offers valuable user feedback, which can be used to further optimize ClickShare and to test new innovations.”
