Danish Interpretation Systems (DIS) uses Altium technology to develop the world’s most-advanced digital conference system.
“Since we are a smaller company, we needed a software system that was fairly easy to learn and did not require a huge amount of knowledge to use it.”
- George Johannesen,
Hardware Designer, Danish Interpretation Systems
The need
Danish Interpretation Systems (DIS) has developed conference solutions for the meeting and communications industry for more than 50 years. DIS is one of the world's leading brands of advanced conference electronics, and provides complete system solutions of electronic conference and congress products to the global meeting industry.
To maintain the company’s competitive edge and keep up with market trends for state-of-the-art technology, DIS embarked on a mammoth project requiring the highest degree of innovation. With the help of Altium tools, DIS developed the DCS 6000, the world’s first digital conference system that handles up to eight active microphones plus 32 different language channels simultaneously.
The challenge
DCS 6000 was designed to meet the ever-changing requirements of today’s modern conference. One of the challenges associated with the design of a digital conference system is to include channel selectors in the armrest of chairs or in the table leg, or a small microphone plate in the table. This can be very challenging from a design standpoint since it requires very small customized units. The team at DIS however stepped up to the challenge and developed the world’s smallest channel selector by building three high-density printed circuit boards on top of each other to create space for all the components.
The solution
For DIS, Altium Designer was the answer to the design challenges of DCS 6000. Altium Designer's rules-based design environment made the task of managing closely-spaced components easier and allowed the engineers to design the boards in full compliance with manufacturing guidelines and electrical parameters. Integrated signal integrity and impedance-controlled routing also allowed the engineers to deal with the high speed issues involved with their design.
Taking advantage of these advanced features was enabled by the ease of use of the Altium Designer system. The engineers at DIS praised the Altium Designer system for it allowed them to get up-to-speed quickly without facing a steep learning curve – as they were not always working with the software on a daily basis, so ease-of-use was crucial. Over time, DIS have upgraded from Protel 98 to the latest version of Altium Designer.
The results
DIS launched DCS 6000 in late 2000 and contributes the company’s positive annual growth to the success of the system. DCS 6000 is a sound reinforcement system for users, can be set up to manage discussion sessions and voting sessions, and also includes simultaneous interpretation in different operating modes depending on the requirements of the users. One of the system’s unique features is the proprietary DCS-LAN developed for the best digital audio and data distribution – with this flexible and user-friendly solution, all products are tied together with standard CAT5 cabling in a fully digital high-speed communication bus.
DIS has created the best technical opportunities for the interpreters, the chairmen and the delegates – regardless of origin – to be able to listen, talk, vote, and understand each other and to derive full profit from a conference. In short, both their simple or advanced solutions make it much easier for the delegates to keep up with the dialogue. DIS customers can now organize conferences more smoothly and effectively, and be more efficient and structured through using an integrated conference solution like DCS 6000.
Product information
The DCS 6000 is a state-of-art fully-digital conference system combining microphone handling, voting and interpretation into one integrated system. The system features excellent sound quality, up to 32 channels of simultaneous interpretation, ergonomic design, and is fully expandable using LAN-based extension units and the SW 6000 Conference Management Software.
The system is based around the CU 6010 Central Unit, which is a sophisticated microprocessor-based control unit that connects to the system units via the (CAT5-based) DCS-LAN, and offers a wide range of external connection features such as analog inputs and PC/network ports – this in turn allows remote firmware upgrades, master PC control and control via standard room systems (AMX, Crestron, etc). The DIS portable conference units feature a similar level of sophistication, with digital audio transmission, microprocessor control of channel selector and voting facilties, a chip card reader (voting version), an LCD display (channel selector version), and ID identification.
Customer information
Danish Interpretation Systems, DIS is one of the world's leading brands of advanced conference electronics. DIS provides complete system solutions of advanced electronic conference and congress products to the global meeting industry on a permanent or rental supply basis: Conference Microphone and Discussion Systems, Simultaneous Interpretation and Translation Systems, Conference Voting and Audience Response Systems. DIS is engaged in product development, manufacturing and world-wide sales and has more than 50 years experience of serving global clients in the meeting and communication industry. DIS is a subsidiary of Informationsteknik Scandinavia and is represented through a global partner network in more than 50 countries.
For more information, visit www.dis.cc
