Atlona Velocity Control System
BACKGROUND INFO
Atlona has spent the last few years, investigating the control system market and developing its own control system, Velocity, which provides a very different approach to normal processor based systems like AMX and Crestron. The big hook is that anyone with a basic understanding of AV routing can spend a few hours with Atlona on an online orientation course and become certified to sell and commission the system.
Velocity’s control gateway is based on IP (networking), moreover, because the Velocity system doesn’t have a “fixed connection” processor, it allows a Velocity deployment to scale easily, enabling up to 250 IP device connections from one IP gateway, or organisations wishing to host their own server can have as many as 5000 devices connected, with no special training required! For devices that are non-IP based control, (RS232, Relay, IR), a cost-effective convertor is available. Multiple gateways can be deployed within an estate to handle more devices.
One of the biggest advantages of this approach is that integrators or service providers can manage several deployments across different sites and even different clients. With Velocity management interface, one can organise multiple projects down to individual locations, buildings, floors, rooms and spaces.
Each room can be configured individually or if meeting rooms follow a standard hardware configuration, the “control profile” can be saved and quickly deployed to new rooms, or should a fault occur, it can be simply reinstalled across the network.
To operate the room, many users want to use their own device, this is made possible by a concurrent user licence model, (you get 5 included per gateway) and can manage up to 1000 users per gateway, this is a far-more affordable approach than other solutions using a per-device model - Atlona has also launched its own cost-effective 5” and 8” dedicated touch screens providing a complete solution from source to display.
The Velocity Control System is totally secure, supporting HTTP/2, HTTPS and WebSocket with TLS and AES-128bit encryption; LDAP integration and analytics will also be available towards the end of 2017, in addition to other updates such as customisable GUI design.
KEY SELLING POINTS:
- Velocity is non-coding based so this provides the opportunity for installation engineers, who are not traditional programmers, to setup control systems – Saving costs to both the integrator and end-user.
- The cost saving applies not only on the initial installation, but it’s also easy to update when replacing or upgrading the rooms AV system.
- Velocity uses standard RJ45 connectivity to communicate with devices over the LAN, however, unlike traditional control processor based systems, that have a limit on the number of communication ports on the box (such as RS232, IR, and relays), Velocity has an IP gateway which can handle 000’s of devices with RJ45 adaptors, so any network socket can provide the required ports to control the display, switcher or other AV device
- Unique IP approach allows the system to scale up to accommodate more and more devices without having replace any hardware.
- Velocity is product agnostic, which unlike other system that can only control proprietary equipment, Velocity can control any third-party device, it uses Global Cache as its database for control drivers, but any controllable device can be accommodated and drivers written if required.
- Velocity can be hosted locally or via the cloud, this provides central management at a very low cost and can be managed easily for different clients, buildings, down to an individual room.
- Control can be access via dedicated 5” and 8” touch panels or via any touch device such as a smart phone or tablet and due to the way its licenced there is no cost for up to 5-concurrent users (per IP gateway), further licences can be purchased to expand this at a very cost-effective rate.
- For early adopters, Atlona’s Chief systems engineer is available to assist with project design, customer engagement etc. (chargeable service POA) right through to deployment.
- Midwich have demo/evaluation units available Mid-August 2017
Please note: for IR, Relay and RS-232 convertors, each device requires an AT-VCC control convertor in addition to the dongle.
To find out more talk your Atlona specialists today.
Call 01252 876300 or email steve.goodwin@midwich.com
