European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

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The headquarters of the European Commission (EC), the legislative armof the European Union (EU), are housed at the 18-storey Berlaymontbuilding in Brussels, Belgium. The EU press room, where Commissionofficials communicate with the press, is, together with the President’soffice and the Commission’s meeting room, amongst the Berlaymont’smost important quarters.

At the end of 2009, Barco and its distributor Civatel equipped the pressroom with a state-of-the-art Barco MegaCADwall system, featuring ahigh-resolution display wall that fosters collaboration. In this way, theyhave raised the room up to 21st century standards.

Barco installs world-class projection system in EU press room

“We realized that only Barco couldhelp us with such a complex proj-ect. Their level of experience andexpertise is unique. On top of that,Barco would be able to provide theservices a discerning customer likethe EC requires.”David Lenaerts,Key Account Manager at Civatel

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The EU press room is much more than aroom used for occasional meetings.Every weekday, it hosts the middaypress briefings where a Commissionspokesperson presents the latest ECproposals and decisions to journalists.The press conferences at the pressroom stage Europe’s – and the world’s –top politicians and gain visibility aroundthe globe. In other words: if the EUwishes to emanate a professionalimage, worldwide, its press room hasto feature high-quality technology.

Until recently, the press room housed afive-year-old Barco projector. Its screenwas small, the number of sources thatcould be displayed limited and the pro-jector’s luminance was fairly low. The ECneeded a state-of-the-art projectionsystem with greater projection powerto display the bright, often HD, imagesavailable today. In addition, the systemhad to be user-friendly and versatile,i.e. able to display as many differentsources as possible.

Complex project – experienced partners

Civatel, the EC’s partner for audiovisualequipment, helped develop the newsystem. “We have been working for theEC for many years,” said David Lenaerts,Key Account Manager at Civatel. “In2005, the EC consolidated its trust in ourexpertise and all-in-one offering with aframework contract. When we werecalled in for the press room, we realizedthat only Barco could help us with sucha complex project. Their level of experi-ence and expertise is unique. On top ofthat, Barco would be able to providethe services a discerning customer likethe EC requires.” Barco didn’t disappointthe project team. Lenaerts: “The analy-sis, blueprint and demos took us arounda year. The cooperation was smooth.Both the EC and we were impressed atBarco’s high level of professionalismand support throughout the prepara-tions, implementation and also today.”

Uniform, crystal-clear images

Since October 2009, the EU press roomfeatures a multi-channel Barco Mega-CADwall. It consists of a 7.70m x 3.40mdisplay wall, four NW-12 projectors andan XDS-1000 display management sys-tem. “With the HD images and camerasavailable these days, the EC needed asystem that pledges the very bestimage quality, without flickering, blurri-ness, etc.,” Lenaerts explained. The top-range NW-12 projector was the world’sfirst three-chip DLP projector with a fullWUXGA (1920x1200) resolution com-bined with a bright 12.000 lumens lightoutput. To ensure pristine images allthe time, it integrates features likeDynaColor, which ensures that eachdevice projects with the same colorquality and intensity, and Linked Con-stant Light Output (CLO) that matchesbrightness differences across channels.

User-friendly collaboration

Besides great image quality, the EC alsorequested a user-friendly, flexible andcollaborative system. The XDS-1000easily teams up with other hardware,such as DVD, satellite TV, videoconfer-encing systems, laptops, etc. and dis-plays all these different – local andnetworked - sources in native resolu-tion, thereby allowing users to visualizemultiple sources simultaneously.

The system’s ease-of-use is guaranteedthanks to the familiar Windows userinterface, where users can control allsources with mouse and keyboard.

Much more potential still

Currently, the projection system ismainly used for PowerPoint presenta-tions and serves as a backdrop for pressconferences. The screen features thelogo of the EU, as standard, but thatimage can be changed, at the click of amouse, to show live feeds or visualizean image referring to the topic underdiscussion in the room, like the fall ofthe Berlin Wall or the Copenhagen Cli-mate summit. “The solution has alreadymet, or even exceeded, all the EC’srequirements as to reliability, imagequality, ease-of-use and collaboration.Still, they have not fully deployed thesystem yet. A Barco DCS-200 dual-chan-nel switch will soon be installed toallow seamless switching between thedifferent input sources. That will furtherenhance the system’s flexibility,”Lenaerts concluded. “The EC now has atruly futureproof press room that fitsthe public image of one of the world’sleading economic and political organi-zations.”

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