Shure and Hillman AV Set a New Standard in AV & Conferencing in the Financial Sector

To help the investment company set a new standard for their AV and conferencing needs, Hillman AV had to specially design a system that would leverage the latest in technology and have the capability to expand. Hillman AV proposed a simple and flexible Shure Microflex Ecosystem throughout the network to cover all the requirements for the project. Choosing Shure’s Microflex system for this project was widely beneficial for this extensive project. It met the investment firm’s needs and requirements for an easy-to-manage and reliable AV system, while it proved to be quick and easy to install for Hillman AV, despite the large geographical scale of the project.

Hillman AV has been a trusted name in the audiovisual field since 2013. Founded by Jarrod Hillman, the company’s mission is to make audiovisual easy, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration across various industries. With offices in Regina (Saskatchewan) and Winnipeg (Manitoba), Hillman AV is dedicated to serving the needs of their customers across diverse sectors, including corporate, education, hospitality, healthcare, and government.

An important Canadian investment solutions firm needed a solution that would be simple to integrate and easy to use for all their conferencing needs, while ideally setting a new video conferencing standard for the firm. The main goal was to switch from a Cisco Webex conferencing system to a new setup based on Microsoft Teams. The biggest challenge was duplicating the user experience and AV environment for each of the four investment firm’s locations across Canada. Each location had similar-sized conference rooms, all with unique challenges for designing the best system configuration and locking in the best solution for the project. Finding the right AV ecosystem at the time, not to mention one that was easy to manage and configure, was made increasingly difficult by the fluctuating supply chain issues across the industry.

The firm contacted Hillman AV for the installation, a reputable local audiovisual team of experts. Based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Hillman AV has been offering innovative audiovisual solutions across North America for over 10 years to corporations, retail stores, restaurants, and hospitality centres.

To help the investment company set a new standard for their AV and conferencing needs, Hillman AV had to specially design a system that would leverage the latest in technology and have the capability to expand. With that in mind, the system had to be network-based. Hillman AV also had to find a solution to adapt the new system design quickly and easily for all four (4) meeting rooms, each with its configuration challenges.

Hillman AV proposed a simple and flexible Shure Microflex Ecosystem throughout the network to cover all the requirements for the project. The proposal and design were approved by the financial firm, and the project was set in motion.

The Shure Microflex Ecosystem offered the flexibility and reliability to meet the requirements of each room. Jarrod Hillman recalls, ”what we liked with the Shure product was that we could change from an MXA710 ceiling-mounted microphone to an MXA910 ceiling-mounted microphone depending on the environment and still have the same infrastructure, which just makes it easier for everyone to manage and configure.” In addition to network-based microphones, Hillman AV installed four (4) Shure MXN5W-C network-based speakers in each location. Those speakers were favorable because they made scaling simple, no matter how many speakers were needed based on the room. Shure MXN5W-C networked speakers integrated seamlessly with Shure’s Microflex Ecosystem of networked hardware and software for a complete audio solution.

The Shure MXA910 was installed as a ceiling-mounted microphone for the investment company’s location in Regina. While the location in Guelph, Ontario had a unique vaulted ceiling onto which Hillman installed two Shure MXA710 ceiling microphones in a parallel manner. “In the Regina Room, we have a ceiling-mounted Shure MXA910 and a wall-mounted Shure MXA710 because of the size of the room, an example of why we wanted to stay with the network ecosystem,” says Hillman. “This gave us a combined coverage with two different models, which made it functional while sleek, with both mics going being managed by a Shure P300.” Hillman goes on to explain that, although the Shure MXA710 is widely known as a ceiling mount and less as a wall mount, it does serve as both, which explains this interestingly unique combination of a Shure MXA710 and a Shure MXA910 in this install by Hillman AV.

The whole install project came together effortlessly, thanks to Shure’s Designer Software, a simple-to-use system integration program for any type of installation. This free software lets integrators effectively design system configurations, as well as collaborate with their customers remotely. It provides the flexibility to design and pre-set room audio coverage layouts from anywhere in the world. Templates can be deployed and adjusted on the fly, making on-site installation and project management simple.

Choosing Shure’s Microflex system for this project was widely beneficial for this extensive project. It met the investment firm’s needs and requirements for an easy-to-manage and reliable AV system, while it proved to be quick and easy to install for Hillman AV, despite the large geographical scale of the project. The combination of Hillman AV’s deep expertise and Shure’s tried-and-true Microflex Ecosystem enabled a successful install, which allowed the firm’s business operations to get back up and running quickly and smoothly.

As an added benefit, Hillman AV’s “mirror image” setups of the Microflex system and infrastructure allow the financial institution’s IT staff to easily troubleshoot or manage diagnostics on-site or remotely for each of their locations across Canada.