Carpenters are highly skilled laborers who perform in a wide array of scenarios, from simple construction framing on single-family homes to building ships and bridges to complex projects in hazardous or extreme weather conditions. These skills require years of hands-on training to master. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters is dedicated to providing education, training, and support to industry professionals from all over the world. In order to offer comprehensive instruction, the organization recently completed its international training facility, which provides both classroom and real-world education to carpenters of all backgrounds, areas of specialization, and skill levels. This facility also functions as a headquarters for more than 200 regional training centers throughout North America, and supports more than 2,500 instructors.
The Challenge
The United Brotherhood of Carpenters operates an international training facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, consisting of a grand atrium, training center, workshop, multiple food service areas, and two onsite hotels. The facility features 22 individual classrooms, as well as two spacious ballrooms that can each be divided to form up to six smaller spaces. In addition, the training center includes a retractable ceiling that can be opened to accommodate scaffolding, and a large water tank for underwater welding lessons. With several modular spaces designed to accommodate a variety of functions and training scenarios, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters required a flexible audio solution capable of supporting its growing facility.
Solution
AVDB of Las Vegas was selected as the integrator, with Senior Sales Engineer Daryl Porter as the project manager. As the discussion and planning of the facility’s design needs progressed, the AVDB team realized that Tesira with AVB was the best solution. Tesira’s bandwidth and high-channel count, combined with its flexibility and ability to integrate with devices from multiple manufacturers, made it an excellent choice for this robust installation. AVB allows the United Brotherhood of Carpenters to expand the system with ease as the facility’s needs evolve and the complex continues to grow; it provides the necessary flexibility while significantly reducing the amount of wiring needed and offers easier overall connectivity. Tesira provides greater scalability with its AVB backbone by eliminating the need for a multitude of twisted shielded pairs with just a few CAT5 cables.
Speakers in the entryway atrium play a soundscape featuring ambient construction sounds, routed through a Tesira SERVER-IO, that complement the museum-quality display of antique carpentry tools. Much like an adjustable task chair or an appropriately positioned computer monitor, audio ergonomics have proven to enhance productivity while improving personal comfort. This soundscape enhances the space and complements the visual elements, providing a cohesive and immersive experience.
The primary installation was in the two large ballrooms, one on each floor. Each ballroom contains six projectors. When the ballrooms are completely open, three projection screens are combined to create a massive presentation area along one wall. Each morning, there is an address from the head of the Union. Once the address concludes, the ballrooms are subdivided into the necessary spaces for the day’s training sessions. Each ballroom contains airwalls and room combiners so that they can be divided for smaller lectures and presentations. The six projectors can then be connected with a lectern containing AV controls and connected to playback devices that are in turn connected to Tesira EX-IN, which takes the four analog inputs and routes them back to the main Tesira DSP. All lecterns in the ballrooms are connected to analog floor boxes, allowing the wireless microphones in each lectern to connect to the system. The facility has a total of 14 EX-INs, including six per ballroom and two more to support additional audio needs.
Conclusion
Due to the complexity and massive scale of the installation, including the high channel count and multiple reconfigurable spaces, there were some challenges along the way as the full scope of what was needed was realized with what was possible through Tesira and AVB. Biamp’s application engineers supported the project helping the United Brotherhood of Carpenters become one of the largest AVB installations in North America.
A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology, Doug has been in the Technology industry since 1976 and actively oversees Fearing’s daily operations. Along with his wife, Lois, and three others, Doug started Fearing’s in a 600 square-foot facility in Portage, Wisconsin. In the 25 years since, the company has grown to over 30 employees with offices in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Doug likes to say he’s a “TV Technician with a dream� going back to his history with the family’s original business-Fearing’s TV and Appliance.
Doug values time with family, watersports, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing. In addition to being a devoted member of his church, Doug serves as Board President for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County, Board member of Schools for Haiti and Scripture Chair of the Gideons-Portage camp.
A graduate of MATC, Lois oversees Fearing’s daily book keeping along with various HR responsibilities.
Along with Doug, Lois is deeply connected to community outreach, serving as a Board member and Fundraising Committee Chairperson for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County. She also serves on the Schools for Haiti Fundraising committee. In addition, Lois’ ongoing passion and commitment to provide care for the elderly comes from her 10-year history of working in a Reedsburg, Wisconsin Nursing home.
Lois enjoys singing, hiking, sunny days on the pontoon, and spending time with her 4 grandchildren.
Ehren drives Fearing’s technology by continually seeking out trends to enhance capabilities while supporting Sales, Engineering and Installation teams. Throughout his years with Fearing’s, Ehren’s talent and vision have joined forces to create a wide variety of projects and strategic solutions that exceed expectation.
Ehren loves music, family time, movies, nature, sustainability efforts and electric vehicles.
With 10 years with Fearing’s and over twice that long in the industry, Ben continues to lead, coordinate, and develop the Commercial AV team.
By consistently delivering an outstanding experience and outcome, Ben contributes to the Fearing’s legacy of long-lasting partnerships that truly make a difference. Whatever the Commercial AV need may be, Ben and team deliver at the highest level.
Ben is an avid fisherman and photographer. He enjoys coaching his sons and other youth.
Chris has been with Fearing’s for 20 years and in the industry for over 2 decades. As a Certified leader in Sales Acceleration and trained in EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating Systems), Chris successfully utilizes his skills to lead the Fearing’s Salesforce. Chris and team are motivated and driven to develop new client partnerships while continuing to reinforce loyal long-term relationships with ongoing Service excellence.
Married for 19 years with 3 children, Chris enjoys skiing, hiking, fishing, boating, hunting, camping and golf. He’s also been actively involved as a Youth Football and Softball coach for his family and others.
