CHALLENGE
Mercy Corps, one of the Northwest’s biggest NGOs, is launching its’ Action Center—a hands-on, interactive space for public education about global poverty issues. The center needs a top-notch, multimedia AV solution that will appeal to the senses. 

SOLUTION
The experts at Diversified (formerly CompView Audio Visual) design and implement just that: a system complete with touchscreen computers, surround sound, wireless microphones, videoconferencing, and projection screens. Offering a fun, interactive, and educational experience, the Action Center draws around 2000 visitors a month.

CONCLUSIONS
When school groups and curious passers-by walk into Mercy Corps’ new Action Center in downtown Portland, Oregon, they’re immediately drawn in by the sights and sounds of the globe at their fingertips. World music plays softly over surround-sound speakers, touchscreen computers show compelling videos created by Mercy Corps field staff and beneficiaries, an enormous virtual image of the Earth offers an invitation to explore issues of poverty in countries near and far.

These sensory-stimulating experiences make the Mercy Corps Action Center a dynamic, hands-on space for the public to explore issues of global importance in places thousands of miles away. Along with the Action Center to End World Hunger in Battery Park City, New York, the Portland center is the first of its kind and a cornerstone of the organization’s mission. This is made possible because of a networked, multimedia AV solution created and installed by Diversified.

“There’s a lot happening in the space,” says Erin Shannon, a Diversified engineer who designed and implemented the system. “Working with Mercy Corps’ firm ESI Design, Shannon created a flexible, networked system that utilizes Biamp® Systems’ Audia® products. “It’s an open area with a lot of media going on at one time,” says John Cathey, a member of Diversified’s Systems Integration Sales team. “Erin had to design and we had to install a very focused system to ensure zones wouldn’t interfere with each other and spill sound throughout the space.”

Continue Reading: https://downloads.biamp.com/assets/docs/default-source/case-studies/mercy-corps-cs-en.pdf

For me, the most valuable goal Mercy Corps achieved is to inspire visitors to take action in their own lives and communities, helping to create a better world with less poverty. And that is possible because of AV solutions and technologies, which allow virtual trips around the world and offer an invitation to explore issues of poverty in countries near and far.

And what about you? What little actions do you take every day that you believe makes the world a better place to live?

@Biamp