ADENA Hack: How to hide the GUI on AREC stations?

Every AREC Media Station from versions 2.6 and newer comes with an inbuilt way to control it — the graphical user interface, shortened to GUI. We covered this interface in detail in the very first ADENA Hack, and mentioned additions to it in subsequent posts. GUI can be opened and closed easily by left-clicking anywhere away from it with a computer mouse or by touching on a USB-connected interactive display. You can also use the dedicated hide/show buttons in the corners of the GUI. Starting from firmware versions 2.11 and on stations with the MCU version 4.3 or 4.4, it is now also possible to completely disable the GUI until it is needed again. To do so, open the “Administrator” web page of your station, go to “Media I/O” -> “Display”. You will find two settings dedicated to this: “OSD Menu'' and “OSD Menu - Playback Video”. Toggling off “OSD Menu” will shut down the GUI until this option is toggled on. Toggling off only “OSD Menu - Playback Video” will keep the GUI, but remove the playback feature from it. If you want to keep the GUI available, but remove the ability for your operators to see previously recorded videos, make sure to toggle off this option.

As of May 2024, the option to completely disable the GUI is available on LS-2, LS-200, LS-300, LS-400, LS-410, LS-860 and KL-3T models, with plans to include it in LS-110 and LS-US2 in the coming months. Would you like to know more about this or other AREC Media Station features? Make sure to reach out to us at www.a-dena.com and we will be happy to arrange a call with you!

Case Study: Sharing history with AREC in Polish Museum

Dear ADENA Partners, this time we would like to highlight a case study from a museum in Poland. Thanks to the work of our partners Polixel and Kontel, the Museum of Cursed Soldiers and Political Prisoners of the Polish People’s Republic chose AREC LS-860 and products from Yamaha, Clearone, Extron, NEC, Sennheiser, and other brands to stream their events and exhibitions.

The former prison-turned museum holds a lot of history. Originally constructed as a correctional facility for criminals, it soon expanded to hold political prisoners. Many of the prisoners perished as the treatment standards fell through the early 20th century, and even more did during the brutal years of the Second World War and its aftermath. Thus, there is a lot of history to talk about and research in the grounds of this museum, and, as the museum representatives themselves acknowledge, a lot of information about the victims of this place is still missing and being uncovered. To better serve its educational role, the museum decided to invest into professional audio-visual equipment that would enable it to livestream excursions and other events, and thanks to our partners Polixel and Kontel, they chose AREC LS-860.

AREC LS-860 is a four-channel Media Station that can combine audio and video inputs from different sources, such as computers, cameras, and network streams, and unite them into preconfigured and user-defined layouts together with backgrounds and overlay images. This mixed video can then be recorded and streamed to different platforms via RTMP/RTMPS, such as YouTube, Facebook, and others. One of the features that makes AREC special is that each individual video source is also simultaneously recorded for post-editing purposes. LS-860 enhances this feature by allowing the user to associate a particular audio channel with a specific video channel while retaining the option to mix all audio channels with all video channels. In the museum, our Media Station is used with an Extron control system, which makes it possible to control all of the device’s necessary features and arrange them in custom orders. The loop-through output of the Media Station, typically used to display the computer source, is sent to a NEC projector, thereby sharing the content with the entire room. Finally, a Yamaha tabletop microphone system is used for seated speakers, supplemented by a combination of Clearone, Sennheiser and Extron systems for different room configurations.

With this advanced system, the museum is fully equipped to further the research into the prison’s history and educate the public. Do you know of similar institutions looking for advanced AV recording and streaming systems? Contact us at www.a-dena.com, and we will be happy to advise.

Text: Anastasia Yakimenko

Case study: Advanced healthcare training with AREC at SIMNOVA, Italy

Dear ADENA Partners, this time we have a case study from SIMNOVA, a centre for healthcare studies at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Italy. Completed by our distributor Prase Engineering, and integrators Tagliabue Sistemi and Tecnovox, the university’s setup ensures continuous 24/7 streaming from the operational rooms and automatic backup to Google Drive. Read how it was done below.

The Interdepartmental Centre for Innovative Teaching and Simulation in Medicine and Health Professions, known as SIMNOVA, was established several years ago at the University of Eastern Piedmont. Its mission is to conduct research in the healthcare sector, provide advanced training and related programs aimed at improving the quality of care, enhancing patient safety and minimisation of their health risks. To achieve these goals, SIMNOVA offers a wide range of courses in numerous subject areas, which are delivered in specially equipped simulation rooms. The university required an easy-to-use solution that could connect these rooms, record the operations, and upload them to cloud storage. Thanks to the efforts of our partners, the AREC Media Capture System was proposed and successfully implemented, along with audio systems from Shure.

There are a total of 6 simulation rooms at SIMNOVA, and AREC systems are utilised in all of them. Depending on the number of video inputs, a different AREC station is used for recording the operations. In rooms with 4 video inputs, the university uses LS-860 stations, while LS-300 models are employed in those with fewer sources. These stations capture audio and video content from various medical devices and microphone arrays, combine it with network camera feeds, and mix them into videos with custom layouts. In the control room, the operator can select any of these mixed Media Station streams and view them through the DS-X01 Media Decoder. This setup ensures continuous streaming from the operational rooms, and the graphical user interface (GUI) present on the DS-X01 lets the operator easily switch between different room views with a single touch.

LS-300 Media Station

LS-860 Media Station

DS-X01 Media Decoder

The chief technician responsible for the AV systems at SIMNOVA, Antonio Scalogna, shared the following regarding the installation:

With AREC, I can schedule each session and manage video recording backups in a highly flexible manner. Of course, I can also send the recordings to the instructors who conducted the simulations through Google Drive. Since the Center acquired AREC, I use it practically every day to fine-tune the streaming graphics and discover new features.

With the system in place, each training and simulation done at SIMNOVA is recorded and saved for further study and other purposes, ensuring that the goals of the university are achieved. Would you like to recreate this experience for your university? Reach out to us at www.a-dena.com, and we will be happy to discuss it with you.