Rockleigh, NJ, May 6, 2011 – Crestron is helping Global Forex Trading, one of the largest currency trading platforms in the world, meet its objectives for a new digital AV infrastructure at its new headquarters facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan. To support an array of audio/video requirements today and into the future, Global Forex Trading selected Crestron DigitalMedia™.

 

Unlike trading in stocks and commodities, there are no central exchanges for trading currencies. Global Forex Trading facilitates direct client-to-client trades through its extensive DealBook^® online trading platform. With the stress of operating in the high-pressure environment of Forex trading, GFT management needed an AV system that would provide reliable high performance no matter what type of video signals were being used.

 

“Time is of the essence in this business. You will make it or break it based on how quickly you can make decisions,” said Eric Johns, IT Facilities Manager at Global Forex Trading. “We wanted to be able to handle any kind of media in high definition - satellite news, HD videoconferencing, Blu-ray, and even entertainment media down in our cafe area.”

 

The Crestron DigitalMedia platform is the only multiroom solution that carries virtually any mix of digital and analog AV signals including uncompressed 1080p HD video with Deep Color, 3D video, and 1900 x 1200 computer signals, plus HD digital audio, control, data, and Ethernet, all over a single shielded twisted pair wire or CresFiber^® 8G.

 

The high tech facility features 20 conference rooms and offices outfitted with new AV systems, including an executive conference center, a training center, sales and marketing conference

centers and employee lounge areas. There's also a four-screen video wall in the lobby, which displays news sources, currency prices and charts from DealBook^®. 

 

Viewing real-time data from DealBook^® is the lifeline to the fast-moving foreign exchange market. “We had three directives in designing this AV system,” says Kirk Griffes, Systems Engineer and programmer for Michigan-based systems integrator, Bluewater Technologies. “The design had to be high-definition, 100% bulletproof, and easy to use.” 

 

DigitalMedia technology also overcomes the common problems with HDMI, including limited transmission distances, problems with HDCP copy protection, and EDID resolution management issues. “I’ve run into problems with every ordinary HDMI switcher I’ve ever used,” says Griffes.

 

“The fact is, DigitalMedia just works – and that in itself is fantastic,” Griffes said. “There’s no other technology out there that works so simply for digital video and audio, especially in a matrix switching configuration.” 

 

With a worldwide customer base, Global Forex Trading relies heavily on  video conferencing. Tandberg HD video conferencing systems integrated seamlessly into the DigitalMedia platform for use in conference rooms and offices. End users of any technical level can intuitively control a video conference from a Crestron touch screen, and switch to any of seven additional video sources while showing the same or different sources on each display in the room.

 

Since everyone at GFT is a potential user of the system, whether participating in a videoconference or making a presentation, the ease-of-use has proven valuable.  “We’re not all IT people,” Johns adds. “We don’t want a meeting with a high value client to crash because the person leading it isn’t a computer genius.”