Z Systems is an audiovisual integrator with 27 years of experience, specializing in both Pro AV integration and professional broadcast video systems. We serve a diverse clientele including corporate, government, education, and production organizations. We have an immediate need for an Associate Account Manager to join our Saint Louis Park team.

The Associate Account Manager will work directly with our Senior Account Manager (Freddie Gotfredson) and engineering staff, learning our business, products, and processes from the ground up. This role is designed for a professional eager to build a career in AV sales, with a clear growth path within our company.

Key Responsibilities Include

• Assist with preparation of quotes and bids.
• Work with our engineering and sales staff to put together timely responses to Proposal requests.
• Assist with web-based content about our product news, customer success stories and services for our website.
• Research and stay current with relevant product offerings from our vendors.

Our ideal candidate must have:

• Strong people skills, but with a technical bent.
• Strong organizational and computer skills.
• A proactive, self-starting approach and strong critical thinking skills; someone who can solve problems and contribute innovative ideas.
• A strong, demonstrable passion for the AV industry. (Direct industry experience is valued, but a passion for technology and an open, flexible approach to learning are most important).
• A career interest in sales and/or sales engineering.
• A genuine interest in constant learning about new technologies.
• A flexible, collaborative mindset suited to an agile team where members support each other to meet client needs.
• A car and valid driver’s license as you may need to visit customer locations from time-to-time.
• Please Note: This is not a work-from-home position.

Additionally, we’d like to see:

• Business to business sales and prospecting experience.
• A 4 year College degree.

Compensation:

Compensation commensurate with experience.

How to Apply:

Please send a resume to careers@zsyst.com.

About Z Systems

Z Systems is a woman-owned Twin-Cities based pro video reseller and integrator.  Our customers include corporate, government, educational institutions, houses of worship, video production companies, post production houses, and any other organizations that need professional video and audiovisual systems.  Basically, any business or organization that is creating audio and video materials. 

Our core values are:

1. Technical Excellence – we know what we sell
2. Fierce Customer Loyalty – we will advocate for our customers over everything else to
   ensure that they are treated fairly.
3. Value – we will utilize technology shifts to help our customers achieve more results
   with less money than our competitors.

We’ve been in business for 27 years and offer both health care and a Simple IRA retirement savings plan for all our full-time employees.

Our office is in Saint Louis Park – just a couple blocks from the Cedar Lake Trail bicycle path and the future Green Line extension (supposed to be finished in 2027).

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If you’re out looking at the features and functions of the various offerings on the market now, it may seem as though some of these requirements are at odds with each other. Today, we’re going to explore how to get the most of all 3, using a recent installation that Z Systems did as an example.

At this point, everyone knows the future of work is heavily invested in hybrid environments. Hybrid meetings are no longer the wave of the future, they are the way that we conduct business and stay productive in most offices and industries. There are countless self-contained systems that accommodate one or two people at a desk, or even 8 to 10 people gathered around a table in a standard conference room. But what do you do in a situation where you want to have a hybrid question and answer session with many people in one room, multiple virtual participants, and a presentation that is shared seamlessly among all of them? Or a situation where you need to have many virtual participants and 20 to 30 people in a live breakout room? Or if you are doing a lecture for 50 attendees on site, and hundreds more on a virtual platform?

Recently, an administrator for one of the state agencies in Minnesota realized how much they were spending on renting hotel ballrooms and AV gear for these sorts of events. He decided to work with us on finding a way to streamline their meeting process and utilize a (mostly ignored) part of the office space they already had. It is a garden level space in a 19^th century brownstone and wood building. The rooms are odd-sized and shaped. It has low ceilings, four large rooms with movable wall partitions to combine them into two rooms, and then three other medium sized conference rooms, a fitness center, a break lounge, and reception/waiting area.

The space itself is unique, and some of the requirements that they had for their meetings are also unique, but we found a way to make the most of the space, and how to meet their needs. One of the requests was for AI camera control for tracking speakers and presenters. We also needed the ability to disable cameras easily, differentiate between the presenter camera and a rear-facing camera to cover questions from the audience. We needed to be able to display video content both from local and remote sources. We also had restrictions on the meeting platforms they were using, and how the rooms were scheduled.

The solution for displays was obvious. In a large room with low ceilings (and support columns in some of them), we decided to use large displays that were duplicated, so no matter your line of sight, you could see both the virtual participants and the presentation material easily. For the large rooms, we used between 4 and 8 98” Sony Bravia displays. For the smaller rooms, we used either one or two of the 86” version of the same display.

Next, let’s look at our audio system. We decided to use many small ceiling mounted speakers to get a wider dispersion of sound. This way, we won’t have to put a lot of juice into the system to make sure even the people in the back of the room can hear questions from the other end of the Zoom or Teams meeting. The important, and cool, part of the audio system is in the microphones. We used the Shure MXA920 ceiling microphone.

The feature that sold us on this microphone was the ability to use the Shure software to divide the capsules into 8 fully routable channels with unique volume and dynamic control for each channel. Thus, you can have your presenter in the front at a higher volume level, and a strong gate on all the other channels that do not cover the front of the room, so that room noise and ambient noise from the audience is limited out of the mix. The microphone also provides an unobtrusive aesthetic profile, as it mostly blends in with the other ceiling tiles. To fortify that microphone for events that have a higher number of people in the room, or a more complex sonic landscape, we also have the availability of a lavalier microphone and a handheld microphone for each of the big rooms, so that presenters have the option to use a dedicated microphone for themselves, while using the MXA920 to cover audience questions or crowd response.

We link microphones, speakers, and other audio accessories using a Symetrix Radius system. With this, we can set up auto mixes and route the audio signals, microphone inputs, and even set up a Bluetooth hot spot for use in the fitness area. This gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of being able to adapt the system to future needs and allows these rooms to have a consistent sonic footprint in varied hybrid meeting situations.

In the common areas, there is also sound masking to ensure privacy between and among the meetings. For the fitness space, we added a Bluetooth panel and speakers that are available for connection. End users can connect to the fitness center wirelessly and employ the installed speakers in that area for their own music, or fitness class audio needs.

Finally, let’s go over the camera and control solutions for this project. The client was excited about the Yealink line of cameras and room kits, so we decided to work with those. For the smaller rooms, we used their A30 roombar kit, for the larger (and combinable) rooms, we went for the ZVC S90 Room Kits (for the ZoomRooms platform). This provides two cameras, a touch screen, two wireless presentation pods (USB-A or USB-C), an AV Hub and a miniature PC to control the cameras and link to the zoom or teams platform user interface.

The features that worked the best for our application were to set the primary camera to presentation tracking and create a priority zone at the front of the room. All the presenter must do is stand there and start talking, and the camera will follow them as they move around the priority zone. Camera 2 is facing the audience, and set to speaker tracking, so if an audience member asks a question, that camera will zoom in on them and focus the shot on the speaker, using microphones in the camera. The framing of these shots is easily programmed in advance as the system is being integrated.

The AV Hub also allows for the scalability of the system. You can add up to 9 cameras to each AV Hub, which gives you a plethora of options for expansion, as you can also combine two of the AV Hubs together under the control of one touch screen. Beyond that, you could also have every room in the system as a unique participant in a virtual meeting, making the options for growth quite massive, for lack of a better word.

To make the video, audio, and physical space work in conjunction with the meeting platform, we employed the Atlona Velocity system. This allowed us to build the whole space as a project with individual rooms and use TCP/IP control to make all the integrated systems communicate. In the Atlona programming that we designed custom for this site, the user can schedule their meeting on the room panel, combine or divide rooms, control volume, camera layout and control of individual cameras, all using the same touch panel that the user is employing to join or create their meeting.

Once the meeting is started, they can share content to the screens in the room and virtual participants, bring in other guests or present media just by connecting the wireless presentation pod to their laptop, tablet, or phone. And this is all done within the same application that you are using to make your calls and control the settings of your virtual meeting. That is flexibility and ease of use, all on one 8” touch screen. It’s a trade-off, really. You’re exchanging end user confusion for the pre-programming time and complexity. We take care of all that, so in the end, you have a system that looks and sounds great, is easily navigable whether you’re new to AV technology or an experienced user, and offers a phenomenal amount of flexibility.

Now that this system is complete, it will be used for classroom-style professional development sessions, community engagement meetings (with 50 to 100 people) in the large rooms, breakout meetings and small group meetings in the smaller rooms, and national meetings with their contemporaries from other states and tribal councils. There will also be applications where two or three work groups will inhabit their own rooms and use a zoom call between rooms for planning and brainstorming sessions. Not to mention the more common flavor of hybrid meeting that we have all become accustomed to. And they are doing all of this cutting-edge work in the basement of a 150-year-old brick and wood building in Minneapolis, that was functionally an unused space until now. Using existing technology and existing space to make a place for the future of hybrid conferencing.

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BrightSign® digital media players create captivating experiences that educate, entertain, inform, and inspire. Powerful enough for professionals yet easy to use, BrightSign players and BrightSignOS deliver brilliant performance, unrivaled security, and legendary reliability out-of-the-box. Whether you are powering one screen or thousands, there’s a BrightSign player for you.

We’ve been selling BrightSign products for over twenty years. They have always been affordable, reliable, and a simple solution for lobby displays, digital signage systems, and so forth. With the plethora of information and media that organizations want to share with their customers and employees, we are seeing a large uptick in the number of systems. We wanted to give you a brief overview to the BrightSign Ecosystem so you can help choose the right hardware and software for your specific need.

Complete information and resources are available on BrightSign’s website: https://www.brightsign.biz/

Here’s a quick explanation of recent BrightSign changes to their software and cloud offerings:

Here is a download link for these three: https://www.brightsign.biz/resources/software-downloads/

Here is a link to download these items and even get a 30 day free trial of BSN.cloud: https://www.brightsign.biz/brightsign-players/software/

If your needs and requirements are beyond what BSN.cloud has to offer, don’t worry. BrightSign partners with over 100 content management partners for content management, cloud, kiosk & fixtures, and the many other applications for BrightSign products. Here is a complete list of partners: https://www.brightsign.biz/partners/

Pro Tip – How to Setup Your BrightSign Player for the first time.

We learned this handy tip from our awesome BrightSign rep. Follow these steps to make any future management/re-provisioning of your BrightSign player a breeze:

1. After unboxing and connection to your monitor, DO NOT plug in the player. Instead, download BrightAuthor:connected to your Mac or PC.
2. Start up BrightAuthor:connected. If you don’t have a login and network name, then create them.
3. Log in to the app (and your BrightSign network).
4. Go into the Admin panel and create a setup for your player(s). This defines how the player will get its content.
5. Pick your player setup, i.e. how will it receive its content?
6. Pick your CMS (Content Management System) from the Partner App selection. This will point your player(s) at the appropriate URL.
7. Now is a good time to update the player firmware, i.e. the BrightSignOS – On the right-hand side of the device set-up page, select BrightSignOS update and choose latest released under your specific player.
8. Save this setup to an microSD card, and/or into your setup library.
9. In the Provision tab, tie the player’s serial number to the network. This allows you to re-provision the player at a later date without having to physically access it.
10. Take the microSD card out of your computer, insert it into the new player, then power up the player.
11. Your BrightSign will take a few minutes to provision and you will see it under the Dashboard tab of BrightAuthor:connected.

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Read below for some of the ways we can be there without being there!

Atlona Velocity – Remote Configuration, Management and Control for Velocity Gateways

For those who are not familiar, Atllona Velocity is one of the control system we use to control and automate audiovisual systems. For a more in depth look at Velocity please check out our blog post on Atlona Velocity or visit Atlona’s website.

Velocity offers a product called AT-VPS-RG. This is is Atlona Velocity’s remote management system. With the purchase of this annual license, and a Z Systems service contract, Z Systems will be able to provide the following support options.

• Remotely configure and manage Velocity AV control systems over the internet for more responsive support and customer service
• Store Velocity gateway backups in the cloud ensuring the latest configurations are always available
• Allow users to control a room AV system from their own device without having to provide access to the corporate network
• Available in three annual licensing levels designed to match the requirements of specific Velocity gateways

OVRC – Cloud Management for Networked Devices

OvrC (oversee) is a revolutionary support platform for professionals that allows them to remotely manage, configure, and troubleshoot devices on the network. From basic home theaters to large-scale networking infrastructures, OvrC empowers pros to keep everything running smoothly.

With OvrC integrators and end users are able to access devices on your network, but what does that exactly mean?

When utilizing OvrC enabled products such as Wattbox (IP power) and Araknis (networking euip.), your integrator can prevent issues, configure devices, or reset devices without stepping foot on site or rolling a service vehicle.

This results in:

• Less down time of your system
• Fewer and more affordable service calls
• Avoid scheduling a technician to be on-site
• Preventative maintenance to ensure reliability
• Firmware upgrades
• Automated and manual resets of troublesome equipment
• Remote configuration of OvrC enabled equipment for fast configuration changes

For more information call Z Systems at (952) 974-3140 or email us.

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Birddog isn’t new to our industry or to NDI, but they certainly are getting our attention. They have quietly established themselves as one of the true leaders in PTZ camera technology while a lot of others are just slapping their labels onto the same unit. They are developing their own chip sets, so you won’t get these same features and the clean integration anywhere else.

They have a lot more interesting stuff than we will be mentioning here, but what follows are some of the highlights…

PTZ Cameras

First of all, we think they have the best, easiest-to-use, and most fully featured control software. It comes with every camera for no charge. Check out this link for more information.

Second Note: All Birddog cameras now come with a 5 Year Limited Warranty. That is amazing – nobody else does that.

Other Birdsh*t

Please checkout their site and read about all the other cool things they are doing with NDI and NDI device management: Software Routers, Monitoring Systems, Fleet Management (not taxi cabs), SDM’s (haven’t heard of them yet? you will), and even an incredibly clever and affordable videowall scheme that uses NDI. There is a lot going on with Birddog!

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The people at Brompton know LED colorimetry. While at NAB 2023, we saw things at their booth that blew our mind. They are really doing it right with a strong eye for the future. Yes, they cost more money than anyone else, but if maximizing the color accuracy and response of your video wall is important to you, buy a wall using Brompton processors and cards. Its that simple.

The software that comes with Brompton’s system to control color accuracy, gray scale, noise, dynamic range, imperfections at panel seams, and so on is really amazing.

They only have two processors: Awesome (the S8) and Massive (the SX40). Both 4k, both HDR, both come will all of their software goodies. The main difference between the two revolves around how many pixels they can manage:

Something cool they were showing was a technology demonstration of an RGBW (not just RGB) LED panel and processor chain. This is the future!

Note the manufacturer of the panel that they are working with. Kind of a hint of who the real innovators in the market are.

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