The Thompson Houston Hotel’s opening in Houston, Texas marked a significant milestone in the city's hospitality landscape. With its grand unveiling, the hotel introduced a new level of luxury and sophistication to the area, captivating both locals and visitors alike. Nestled in a prime location, the Thompson Houston boasts stunning views and easy access to the city's vibrant cultural and culinary scene. From its chic lobby to its stylish guest rooms and suites, every detail exudes elegance and refinement. The Thompson Houston in heralds a new era of upscale hospitality in the city, setting a standard of excellence that promises to elevate the guest experience for years to come.
Among the many upscale details of this hotel is the Audio Video control system designed and installed by Houston’s own DataVox. The system utilizes state of the art AVoIP and ReAX control hardware manufactured in the US by Aurora Multimedia. This IP based system controls audio and video over IP distribution for the three-way combinable spacious meeting space and the elegant, three-way combinable ballroom spaces. It also controls 48 zones of audio over 7 floors including the hotel, spa, restaurants, and pool area. Two high end luxury hotel suites feature Aurora RXT-4 4” touch panel controllers for complete audio control of the suite.
“The system just works” says Mia Chargois, Director of Catering & Special Events at the Thompson. “It’s so easy to use and looks amazing.”
ReAX is a control platform developed by Auora Multimedia based on open-source industry standards – JavaScript and HTML. For simple projects, a clean and easy drag and drop development suite (Core Studio) can be used for code-less development. However, in the hands of a competent and creative developer such as Integrity Design LLC, a Control Coding company out of Baltimore, MD, the ReAX platform is a powerful heavy weight contender in the advanced AV Control space. In recent years, while most other manufacturers were struggling with supply chain issues, Aurora was still delivering it’s US made products saving hundreds of mission critical projects from catastrophe. Now that the dust is settling, many eyes have been open to the power of ReAX as the go to alternative to some of the more difficult to work with, old school competitors.
The Thompson Houston
The highly functional control software for the Thompson Houston was developed from the ground up by Integrity Design. While most AV control systems on the market provide a small level of user interface customization, Integrity Design leveraged the power of ReAX to fully embrace the branding investment of the Thompson Houston, further emphasizing the elegance and sophistication of the venue. “The legacy control systems that are ubiquitous in the market are quickly visibly identifiable as ‘XYZ’ brand control system. This seems completely upside down” says Integrity Design CEO Buddy Oliver. “End user clients like Thompson Hotel invest heavily in establishing a brand that represent their look, feel and values. At Integrity Design, that brand investment is what we make front and center of a touch panel control design.”
Screen Shot of Ballroom Control Panel
For the combinable ballroom and meeting spaces Integrity Design created a highly functional yet simple and elegant interface that focused on ease of use. “The system just works” says Mia Chargois, Director of Catering & Special Events at the Thompson. “It’s so easy to use and looks amazing.” Complex video routing is achieved utilizing Aurora Multimedia’s VPX AVoIP endpoints. With extremely low power consumption, the VPX line includes active encoder wall plates for BYOD access in the room. These units are fully contained in a standard 2-gang wall plate making installation and maintenance incredibly easy. Each controllable space is managed by its own Aurora RXT-8-W in-wall touch panel controller. These controllers are unique in that the touch panel is also the controller. This makes deployment very simple and lowers the total cost of ownership.
For the zoned audio, DataVox installed a combination of Aurora RXT-8W and RXT-4W touch panel controllers throughout the facility. These controllers communicate directly with DSP units to control each audio zone. Because the panel user interface was thoughtfully designed integrating the hotels branding, they are an elegant and unobtrusive addition to the décor yet provide all the functionality needed to manage the audio distribution.
Aurora recently debuted the “ReAX Room” centered around the new RXT-4D desktop controller. The RXT-4D includes the same 4” display in a clean desktop form, however, this version has a host of advanced features packed into its small footprint. It features the same powerful ReAX engine as its wall mount brother but brings audio and video into the mix as well. A beamforming microphone, built-in high-fidelity speaker, a headphone output and bi-directional Dante™ allow the small desktop display to replace individual conference microphones. An upgraded version of the desk-top controller also incorporates a VPX AVoIP encoder which allows per seat BYOD capability which can be routed into the AV infrastructure. “We believe the RXT-4D is a game changer in the conferencing space” stated Paul Harris, CEO of Aurora Multimedia.
Integrity Design is uniquely positioned to extract maximum value from these cutting-edge devices. Before starting Integrity Design, CEO Buddy Oliver was the Vice President of Control, Automation and Pro Audio at Aurora Multimedia. There is no one in the world, outside of Aurora, that is more knowledgeable or experienced with ReAX than Integrity Design. “The new RXT-4D desktops are something we started to imagine while I was at Aurora,” says Oliver. “It’s exciting to finally get our hands on one to see how far we can advance the future of conferencing.”
Class and elegance are the cornerstone of the Thompson Houston. Integrity Design, Aurora Multimedia and DataVox have created an Audio and Video system worthy of those values.