Conference systems facilitate the discussion of key issues for the planet.
Didiê Cunha*
The United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA) is one of the world's leading forums, where heads of state, environment ministers, activists and NGOs come together to consider and make global commitments to environmental protection. The most recent UNEA meeting was held at the UN headquarters for the African continent, in Nairobi, Kenya.
This entire UN complex has shure conference systems, and more than 4,000 meetings take place there every year. The main rooms of the complex function as independent rooms and are combined for the UNEA, forming a large room with capacity for more than 2 thousand people.
To understand the complexity of this type of event, we must explain the elements of a conference system: a system in which each participant has a microphone and a loudspeaker to speak and listen to the other attendees. In the case of the UN, the units are configured in the dual delegate mode. Additionally, the UN has identification plates for participants (MXCSIGN), which allow each country to find its location (or its seat) by the name that appears on the plaque, organized alphabetically.
All these components are connected to a control center (DIS-CCU) that remains in the technical area. The system management software (SW6000) determines what the procedure and all meeting settings will look like.
From this software, technicians can program the agenda of events, voting, time of speeches, open or close any microphone in the system and also program the identification plates of each delegation.
For this assembly, the mode of operation was manual, so that the president could open and close his microphone and also that of any participant in the room. Delegates, in turn, could not open their own microphone, but had to request the right to speak.
One of the challenges was maintaining the organization and schedule. Especially, the duration times of the speeches. In the case of UNEA, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, and that of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, had no time limit for their speeches. All other participants had 4 minutes to intervene.
To notify speakers that their time was up, SW6000 software, installed on a computer next to the podium, notified them when there was 1 minute left to finish. At the end of each speech, when the clock struck 4 minutes, the microphone was automatically disconnected, thus ensuring equal time for everyone.
There is also the challenge of multiple languages. One of the most sensitive points is the intelligibility and understanding of information (audio quality). More than 190 UN member countries participated in the meeting. It was necessary to offer simultaneous translation for various languages such as English, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic and Chinese, and in some sessions, Portuguese and Italian.
Meeting participants can choose the language they prefer to hear through channel selectors, which are part of the conference system, installed at the tables of each delegation.
Such a great event could not have a result that was not technically perfect. The whole system behaved very well, without failures or problems thanks to proper planning, a well-done installation and up-to-date maintenance. Thus, even when the systems have been in operation for several years, they continue to work perfectly, even in the most critical applications.
In conclusion, conference systems with intelligibility and quality are important, not only for global institutions like the UN, but for the entire planet.
*Didiê Cunha is a Senior Market Development Specialist at Shure.
