Gaithersburg, Maryland, October 3, 2008 – Black Entertainment Television (BET) has completed their technology implementations in their new Chicago office and in their renovated DC and New York offices.  BET needed a company that could design/build, their technical infrastructure to provide audiovisual, presentation, and video teleconferencing capabilities to conference rooms, multipurpose room and reception areas.  Therefore, they called on the skill and expertise of Professional Products, Inc. (PPI).  The Chicago, New York and DC offices were complete in January, May and June of 2008 respectively.  The main purpose of having PPI design, engineer and build these systems was to create consistent functionality throughout the multiple offices.

The Chicago office consists of a main and secondary conference rooms, a lobby/reception area and a senior executive office.  A 110” 16:9 aspect ratio Blue Oceanฎ screen gives a 3-D portrayal of digital video and graphics, which is used with the rear projection system; surround sound audio system, a HD video teleconferencing (VTC) unit and two cameras make up the main conference room technology.  The secondary conference room has a 50” plasma display, a VTC unit and a microphone for computer presentations, meetings and video teleconferencing.  In addition, there is a 50” plasma in the lobby/reception area which allows for playback of video via cable TV or computer images for guests to view while they wait.  The senior executive office has a 42” HD TV, a surround sound system and an HD VTC unit to allow for small executive presentations, meeting from two positions with in the room and play back of HD DVDs and cable TV is also available.

The New York City office consists of boardrooms, reception area, executive offices, VTC conference rooms, small meeting rooms and a pantry area.  65” LCDs, surround sound, HD DVD and wireless room controls were used in the boardrooms for meeting or presentations.  The reception areas have 20” LCD displays and speakers to show TV imagery to incoming visitors.  In the New York City executive offices will have the same equipment and functions but without the VTC capability.  The VTC conference rooms have a 50” plasma display, video teleconferencing unit, speakers, microphones, and an HD camera for use with PC for presentations.  Small meeting rooms will have a 42” plasma display, speakers and PC connectivity cables for presentations.

The BET headquarters office in Washington, DC upgraded their executive area, multipurpose room and a legacy walk/pod area.  Within the executive area there is an executive office with three 26” LCD panels to display various content from multiple sources, a microphone and a camera for VTC; an executive boardroom with a 46” LCD display, camera, and microphones for VTC; and an executive dining room with speakers for playing background audio which is controllable by a wall mounted volume and song selection controller.  The multipurpose room area consists of three 60” plasma displays mounted in window structures, a VTC system; there is an additional room adjacent to the multipurpose room which is divided by an air wall with a 60” plasma for displaying video material and an additional wall mounted controller to adjust volume, song and video selection.  Lastly, the legacy walk/pod area has six LCD screens and has the same wall mounted controller for volume, song and video selection.