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Samaritan’s Purse is a Global Christian humanitarian aid organization that provides support to people in physical need.
Naturally, their aid work takes them all around the world, but they are also extremely active here in the UK. For example, every Christmas they run volunteer programs, where anyone can go into their business to help pack shoeboxes which are then sent out to children in deprived regions. Called Operation Christmas Child, this is an extremely popular initiative, and one which has helped the organisation to grow and support more and more children over recent years.
As you can imagine, work on this scale is a huge logistical undertaking, both in terms of operations and processing. Not only that, as part of their program, Samaritan’s Purse also welcomes many new – and often large – groups of people into their premises, many of whom require some form of training. Making sure that the right messaging is communicated clearly, quickly, and effectively is paramount to their success.
So, when Samaritan’s Purse recently moved to their new HQ in Coventry, they decided to call Solotech in. With an almost blank canvas, this was an opportunity to not only optimise their volunteer engagement, but also implement the very latest commercial AV equipment into their new offices.
The solution that Solotech provided was quite unique and in many ways drew from our expertise in the Live Productions arena.
Firstly, to facilitate the training requirement, a 98” LG Ultra HD screen was mounted in the main ‘Greeting Room’ for volunteers. This was controlled by a 12” touchscreen panel from Beetronics to ensure that messaging was quick, clean, and easily delivered. The training space is multi-functional and can host webcast’s, video conferencing and also host Church services for local churches.
Further LG screens were located throughout the remainder of the building, from the main reception and office areas, through to the conference and board rooms which enjoyed 75” and 55” versions of the non-glare panel. Logitech video bars were used to provide the teleconferencing functionality wherever necessary.
So far good. In many respects the AV fitted in the offices at Samaritan’s Purse are probably very similar to many others in the modern world of global commercial.
What sets them apart, however, is their main warehouse space.
Samaritan’s purse have also set up numerous warehouse spaces across North America and the brief for Solotech was to come up with a technology package which gave consistency across all the organisation’s spaces.
Located at one end is a stage, one which enables them to present, entertain, and showcase the great work that they are doing across the globe. The form this takes is almost a live production event with visuals supplied by a 5 metre x 3 metre Full HD video wall.
Audio re-enforcement is provided by L-R hangs of Martin audio wavefront precision (WPS) line arrays, supplemented by 2 x SXC118 cardioid subwoofers for low frequency extension.
A pair of martin audio LE100 stage monitors complete the set.
The warehouse provided a challenging acoustic environment to Solotech engineers with 700 square metres of coverage area required.
The system design was optimised in Martin’s own Display 3 simulation software to ensure accurate results.
The choice of cardioid subwoofers has helped to control direct to reverberant sound ratios. The WPS arrays are 8 deep in total allowing line array directivity control to make sure speech is clearly understood all the way to the back.
The warehouse AV system has been installed with the future in mind, with infrastructure available to facilitate in-coming productions and host concerts.
An Allen and Heath SQ console takes care of mixing duties for regular usage and larger mixing consoles can be facilitated out front for larger productions during concert season.
A Q-sys control system has also been installed to allow customised user access as well as interfacing with the building’s fire alarm system.
Samaritan’s Purse: https://www.samaritans-purse.org.uk/
