ABOUT THE LEGAL AID BUREAU OF BUFFALO
Established in 1912 and serving more than 20,000 individuals annually, the Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo is the largest and oldest provider of indigent legal services in Western New York. Their mission is to provide access to justice and due process to the most vulnerable individuals, children, and families through quality legal representation and assistance.
Their Civil Legal Services Unit provides a range of holistic services to help domestic violence victims, abused and neglected children, children facing a range of challenges in obtaining equal access to education, veterans, formerly incarcerated individuals, victims of workplace abuse, immigrants and refugees, persons with disabilities, homeowners facing wrongful foreclosures, individuals with mental illness and other vulnerable Western New Yorkers.
CHALLENGES
The Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo has a large, uniquely-shaped meeting room, which they wanted to use for training, board meetings, presentations, and audio/video conferencing. Rather than requiring everyone to travel there, in person, to attend meetings, they wanted a conferencing system that allowed everyone to “be” there. Other than a monitor and a computer, the room had no tech. So, enabling these capabilities was a big step. A relatively low ceiling and irregular shape of the walls presented some additional challenges. Further complicating the installation was the existing audio characteristics of the room, which was a noisy area with additional sound and vibration caused by the HVAC system.
THE CLEARONE SOLUTION IMPLEMENTED BY VERAVIEW
This was Veraview’s first installation of ClearOne’s patented BMA CT Beamforming Mic Array Ceiling Tile.
The BMA CT proved to be the perfect solution for the room. It performed well in overcoming the room’s acoustical challenges and was esthetically pleasing. Its form factor was ideal, given the room’s low ceiling. Meeting participants can be clearly heard, even if moving freely about the room, and can sit/stand in any location without compromising audio quality.
Using the BMA CT and the CONVERGE® Pro 2 DSP mixer, the team at Versaview was able was able mitigate the issues caused by the noisy HVAC system and provide crystal clear audio quality, even for conferencing sessions with 20-30 participants in the room.
O’Leary also specified the Unite 150 PTZ cameras in the 20X20 conference room, citing their unparalleled versatility as a key element. Supporting USB 3.0 or 2.0 interfaces, it’s compatible with popular applications such as COLLABORATE® Space, Microsoft® Teams, Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Spontania and more.
The Unite 150 cameras also feature full HD video quality with 1080p video, 12x optical zoom for close-up views and a 73-degree wide-angle view to capture all participants across the entire conference room.
"This was the first BMA CT we did. Looks great, works nicely. Big plus is they have a noisy area and it does a great job in taking that noise out." - Brian O'Leary, Account Executive at Veraview, the AV Systems Integrator that installed the ClearOne solution.
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.
