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| The Bosch DCN system consists of Concentus microphone units for the delegates |
Bosch conferencing technology helps the municipality of Almelo, The Netherlands to ensure transparency and efficiency in its decision-making processes. To allow the city’s 35 councillors to follow all plenary sessions easily and contribute their opinions in a clear and structured way, the company Hecla Professional Audio & Video Systems B.V. was assigned to install the DCN Next Generation conference system from Bosch. This comprehensive system consists of Concentus microphone units for the delegates, a Central Control Unit as well as a Software Suite for the operator. It features particularly high speech intelligibility and full range, straightforward voting facilities.
Electronic voting was an essential feature for the council when selecting the new system. The installed Concentus microphone unit from Bosch meets this requirement as it is equipped with five voting buttons to allow the delegates to efficiently make their decisions. Using the Conference Software Suite the operator can prepare a vote before the meeting, but is also able to conduct an ad-hoc vote during the meeting if necessary. After each vote, the results are displayed immediately via a projector for everyone to see. Additionally all results are saved on the computer for archiving purposes. The electronic voting feature together with the Conference Software Suite was first put into use to coincide with the 2011 Government Spring Financial Report. A total of 66 votes took place in just one hour – a significant increase in efficiency, considering that the process would have taken approximately four hours on paper.
All debates, decision-making processes and votes of the city’s representatives can now be recorded and uploaded to the internet in video and audio format. This allows the residents of Almelo and other interested parties to follow the meetings live or view the recordings at a later point in time.
The DCN Next Generation System from Bosch features a flexible system design and is based around a Central Control Unit that operates with or without application software. The delegate units are connected to each other by a ‘loop-through’ configuration. In addition, other modules and components – such as cameras or interpreter desks – can be combined with total flexibility to form a complete, tailor-made system. Also devices from other providers such as for example touch screen controllers, can be integrated. Finally, the system stands out by its captivating, award-winning design.
