The NAC Puurs-Sint-Amands: a success story
The NAC Puurs-Sint-Amands
The municipalities of Puurs and Sint-Amands merged several years ago to form one large municipality: Puurs-Sint-Amands. The new Administrative Center (NAC) is the first major project since this merger and recently serves as the new town hall housing almost all municipal services. The NAC is an essential hub for both residents and employees of the municipality of Puurs-Sint-Amands.
Maarten Versichel, Head of Service Information Management at the NAC, and Raf Nys, Project Manager Techniques at construction company Van Roey, together led the realization of this new, modern administrative center for the IT and audio/video part.
The drafting of the specifications for this project was completed before the corona period. However, due to the corona crisis, some important new basic needs were added during project implementation, such as hybrid conferencing, streaming, among others.
Department Head of Information Management Maarten Versichel told us the following about this, "We hold several city councils every year, these are meetings that take place in public. During the COVID period, then still in our old center, we had to move quickly to ensure that the municipal councils could continue to take place publicly in a hybrid way. This also meant voting had to be done digitally and City Council had to be streamed. Through this period, we discovered some new basic needs that were identified as a necessity for the new NAC."
Meeting rooms for every kind of meeting
Raf Nys, technology project manager at Van Roey, explains that every meeting room in the town hall is facilitated for hybrid meetings. In this way, both employees and external parties can participate in meetings without being physically present. The meeting rooms are optimally occupied because different types of meeting rooms with various purposes were chosen. For example, the NAC has individual meeting hubs, larger meeting rooms with various capacities and brainstorming rooms. Future needs were also taken into account in the design, allowing for further expansion of the current software, for example.
In addition to fixed installations, NAC Puurs-Sint-Amands also opted for two mobile videoconferencing solutions. The choice for some mobile versions stems mainly from the idea of multi-deployability.
For example, the "trolleys" were recently used to stream the elections in lunchroom "De Asper", but are also used as an extra content display at important meetings. In addition to their multi-purpose use, the mobile audio and video equipment are also an added value in rooms that often change their set-up.
The showpiece: the council chamber & wedding hall
The showpiece of the NAC Puurs-Sint-Amands fulfills several important functions: On the one hand, this spacious room is used for the monthly city council meeting, for which the space was primarily designed. The room also has an audio and video conferencing system that ensures that each speaker is highlighted on the screen during the session. This creates clarity and better engagement with all physical and online attendees.
In addition, the showpiece also serves as a wedding hall for citizens. During the ceremony, guests can follow the emotions of the bride and groom through the screens, adding a new dimension to this experience.
Central control of the council chamber is via a Crestron touchscreen, chosen for its user-friendliness and functionality.
Infoscreens for every audience
Several information screens have been installed at various locations within the NAC:
- Ground floor and service floors: displays with necessary information for visitors and citizens.
- Internal offices: displays in dining areas and hallways with practical, internal communications.
- Conversation rooms: displays to support presentations during more, serious conversations.
Collaboration with Van Roey and Play AV
The cooperation between the NAC Puurs-Sint Amands, Van Roey and Play AV proceeded, according to each party, with a very transparent and open accounting. This led to the correct and efficient use of resources and solutions. The cooperation was characterized by an open mindset, honesty, and a fast execution time.
Raf Nys provided us with some nice words: "At Van Roey we chose to work with Play AV for several reasons, on the one hand because we had previous, positive collaborations with you. In addition, Play AV sells, not just, ordinary displays or audio installations, but customized solutions. We did not tell you that we needed several cameras or 400 WATT 100 volt amplifiers, but rather what our needs and end goals were. Your audiovisual consultant Stefan is also not just a salesman, but a real connoisseur of his products. Ditto for Project Manager Milan who always thought of solutions that were not so obvious. In addition, and perhaps even more importantly, it is very nice that you did not disappear after the delivery, but were just as quickly available for any after services. We can always count on you and that is also the reason why we always chose your company again."
