London, January 2024 – Established in 1926, London-based integration company RG Jones is the longest standing AV business in the UK. With expertise in the public, corporate and entertainment sectors, one of the company’s most notable projects is Mansion House, the home and office of the Lord Mayor of London.
Mansion House is a Grade I listed building that was built in the mid-1700s. As well as serving as the residence of the top bureaucrat, it’s used for some of the capital’s most formal events, including white tie dinners, political speeches, graduations and award shows, each of which require varying levels of technical creativity.
RG Jones has looked after the technical infrastructure of Mansion House for several years. During this time, the integrators have upped the scale of the event productions held at the historic venue, which forced them to search for an intuitive and reliable communications system, leading them to PunQtum.
“We used to have a few local devices at control positions for engineers, but this wasn’t serving us anymore,” begins Xander Green, senior project manager at RG Jones. “We needed to branch out and offer communications to stage management, monitor engineers and system techs that assist on the variety of events that we do at Mansion House.
“Some of these events are large-scale, so it’s imperative that our engineers can speak to each other directly. We were familiar with PunQtum and we’ve been blown away by what we have achieved with the new system. Their digital partyline intercom system is affordable, flexible and easy to use, which was key to this project.”
Mansion House’s solution comprises eight of the brand’s Q110 beltpacks, which offer users two channels of partyline intercom packed with an array of useful features. This includes plug and play, audio replay, flexible configuration and daisy-chaining capabilities, which allow an unlimited number of additional belt packs to be added to the system.
This is all connected to PunQtum’s Q210 P speaker station, a device that houses four-channel communication and programmable buttons that can easily mute all mics or make paging announcements where necessary. It’s a self-contained communications hub that can drive up to four wired beltpacks each, which was ideal for the fluctuating teams that assist at Mansion House.
“When I first came to use the product, I didn’t have to read any manuals or look up any instructions, the buttons were really clear and easy to work out,” furthers Green. “It’s all really intuitive as to how the beltpack works.
“A typical set-up for us would feature two or three camera men and control positions at the back of the room. Quite often we’re at venues that we aren’t particularly familiar with so the plug and play option with local IP is really useful for us.”
The plug and play feature is essential when time on site is limited. Users can simply take the beltpack out of its box, plug it into any network and start communicating quickly and easily. RG Jones also uses a combination of PunQtum’s Q910 single ear and Q920 dual ear headsets at Mansion House, which are lightweight products with dynamic microphones that work in harmony with the wider intercom system.
“The user experiences has been brilliant with PunQtum,” concludes Green. “It’s super easy to use, which is hugely beneficial for our clients, and we’ve had no negative feedback whatsoever. It allows us to communicate freely on site, the sound quality is great, and for someone like me who needs to communicate effectively with the wider team, it’s invaluable.”
