Netherlands Motor Vehicle Authority Uses Extron TouchLink™ to Control Its Immersive Telepresence Systems

The Netherlands Department of Road Transport, or RDW, has a long tradition of using videoconferencing and Immersive Telepresence systems to bring its employees together for meetings and training sessions. Immersive Telepresence, a valuable and often necessary alternative to physical travel, has been especially useful, given the growing traffic problems in the Netherlands.

The integration of control into the LifeSize telepresence environment wouldn’t have been as easy with a product other than the Extron TouchLink Touchpanel.

Gabriel Carre, CEO, Polymedia Europe

The Goal: Immersive Telepresence Rooms in Three Locations

According to Polymedia Europe CEO Gabriel Carre, the RDW needed “a room control system that was efficient and easy to maintain, especially remotely.” The RDW chose Polymedia Europe to install Immersive Telepresence rooms in three locations: Zoetermeer, the largest suburb of The Hague and a center for information technology; Veendam, an agricultural city in the heart of the famous Dutch peat colonies; and Groningen, a 2,000-year-old university city. Polymedia Europe selected a LifeSize Immersive Telepresence system from LifeSize Communications, and Extron’s TLP 350CV Furniture-Mountable TouchLink™ Touchpanel for control.

The TouchLink Solution

One of the main factors in Polymedia’s decision to use the Extron TLP 350CV was that the efficient Cable Cubby design combines AV system control with cable management. The TLP 350CV features a tilt-up, full-color touchscreen in an elegant metal enclosure that can be easily and securely mounted into a tabletop, lectern, or other flat surface.

Polymedia paired the TLP 350CV with an Extron IPL T S6 , a compact Ethernet control processor, which includes an integrated, high performance Web server and allows full AV system control through bidirectional RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485 serial ports and IP Internet protocol connectivity.

In addition to the TLP 350CV TouchLink Touchpanel, each of the three Immersive Telepresence rooms contains a LifeSize Conference 200 Immersive Telepresence system, three 50-inch videoconferencing screens, a 32-inch data screen, three directional speakers, a LAN switch, an equalizer/microphone mixer, two boundary microphones, and an audio amplifier.

“The integration of control into the LifeSize telepresence environment wouldn’t have been as easy with a product other than the Extron TouchLink Touchpanel,” Carre says. “TouchLink provided, at less cost, the functionality we needed for this complex environment.”

Also, the TLP 350CV added multipoint functionality via the built-in MCU in the LifeSize codecs, enabling end-users to make multipoint calls without the added expense of an external MCU.

Installation of all three rooms were completed in 15 days. “The system has been operational and used daily since February of 2010 with no problems,” Carre says.

LifeSize + TouchLink = Success

The RDW installations were among the first uses of Extron TouchLink technology to control LifeSize Immersive Telepresence systems, and it was a complete success, meeting the client’s three-fold need for superior quality, unique flexibility and unmatched price and performance. “The Extron TouchLink Touchpanel fulfills our requirements and those of our customer,” Carre says. “It was easily integrated into our telepresence table and allows us to add data connections and VGA to a broadcast during a conference. The product looks good, and we have decided to make it a part of our telepresence solution set.”