When Brighton High School needed to upgrade their existing Synergy Media Retrieval control system, they looked to Realm Control Corp.. They were especially interested in improving the DVD control capabilities and the campus live Paging system. The facility was upgraded to the Phoenix platform in August of 2004.

Media Retrieval Needs

In most respects, the needs of Brighton High School would equate to those of any other high school: centralized media management and whole campus automation. Specifically, Brighton High School had 86 rooms to automate. Synergy had been meeting their needs for years. However, as technology evolved and the need for additional security emerged, the Synergy system became obsolete. Teachers required advanced DVD control instead of the basic transports provided by Synergy. Also, due to concerns about the current state of the world, the campus Paging system needed to be improved and streamlined. The overall system performance needed improvement as well, and Brighton High School wanted a solution that is more easily supported than Synergy. All of this led to the decision to move forward with Phoenix, which is the only true upgrade path for any campus that utilizes the Synergy Media Retrieval system.

The Campus Paging System

As part of the Paging add-on that Brighton High School included with their upgrade, Zone Paging capabilities via touch panel and/or web client became available. Phoenix allows paging to the entire campus with the push or a button, or to specific zones that are defined using the Phoenix32 Server application. Because the paging feed and the zones are stored dynamically within the Phoenix database, the Media Center can easily alter the behavior and available zones without requiring modifications to source code. They simply create a new zone, define the destinations that are included within that zone, and then it becomes available to the touch panel and web client Paging interfaces.

The Upgrade

Brighton High School was upgraded to Phoenix in two days. The hardware was provided and installed by Univisions Communications Group. The bulk of the time was spent tweaking behaviors of the Head End sources so that they would all behave according to the preferences of the staff and faculty.

Conclusion

Realm Control Corp. would like to thank Emmy Lou Dykes, the Media Director at Brighton High School, for choosing Realm Control Corp. as the upgrade path for their Synergy system. Also, many thanks go out to Univisions Communications Group, especially Rich Olson and Patrick Calandra.

Although this installation constitutes another Synergy upgrade, it should be clearly understood that Phoenix is not just a solution for facilities that are already automated via Synergy. Phoenix is the right solution for any facility that requires Media Retrieval and Campus Automation. In fact, Phoenix has already been installed at multiple facilities that had no Media Retrieval solution in place whatsoever. For all you Synergy users: Phoenix is your upgrade path. For everybody else: Phoenix the most comprehensive, robust, and reliable Media Retrieval solution available, regardless of campus size.