New conference system in the NRW state parliament.

State law is debated and voted on in the plenary chamber of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament in Düsseldorf, which seats 195 members. In January 2025, PROTONES was delighted to be commissioned to install and commission a new microphone conferencing and voting system. In several weeks of concentrated work, the previous system from 2012 was replaced with user-friendly, cutting-edge technology.

PROTONES project manager Kilian Eising told us: "The biggest challenge was the construction schedule. The work started on our side on 06.01.25 and we had to be finished with commissioning just 14 days later. Due to the dismantling of the old system, the existing cables had to be pulled back and dismantled. As a result, the raised floor in the hall had to be opened up extensively."

"Another challenge was coordinating the various trades on site. For this reason, a construction schedule was drawn up in advance, in which the individual work steps had to be planned and scheduled to the minute."

Founded in 1958, the company Brähler Systems based in Königswinter near Bonn, has always been a leader in conference technology. Marcus Frank, CEO of Brähler, described the unique technical challenge by saying: "This project was not only focused on system capability but also on durability and was almost entirely custom-made and state-of-the-art."

"Only a few of the elements installed were standard. For example, two 6.2-inch screens were needed to show how much time the speaker had left to speak. As the ceiling of the hall contains a lot of glass, these screens had to be very bright. Standard screens often have a brightness of around 300 NITS, but for this application we opted for a customized solution with 1000 NITS."

The central components of the new system were the 208 Brähler DIGIMIClean conference microphone systems, which were installed directly in front of each Member of Parliament's seat. Mr. Frank explained: "In addition to the microphone, each unit has three white buttons: 'Yes', 'No' and 'Abstain'. To meet the requirement, each member of parliament has an RFID card that they can use to log in to their individual DIGIMIC unit."

Marcus Frank was very pleased with the excellent cooperation and said: 'The technicians from PROTONES did a great job. We worked together for the first time last year in Munich on a similar project. The communication is always clear, precise and friendly.

Enno Finder, a Berlin-based certified acoustician (SGA) and long-standing planner at ADA-AMC, a WSDG company, was responsible for the overall design of the project and construction supervision. WSDG is a globally active company for architectural acoustics consulting, design and A/V integration planning. Mr. Finder also praised the twelve-member PROTONES team and said: "I have great respect for the drive, commitment and quick thinking that Kilian, Michael and the rest of the PROTONES team showed in the state parliament. In my professional career, I have only experienced a few projects that went so smoothly despite the high pressure."