The Situation
Nestled at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, the Marriott Salt Lake City University Park Hotel offers its customers convenience, comfort, and value in a scenic setting.

Guests of the hotel enjoy everything they need for a successful visit to the Crossroads of the West. The hotel is located near the University of Utah, Hogle Zoo, Red Butte Gardens and high-tech Research Park. In addition, the hotel is also host to many business conferences and corporate meetings.

The hotel features a large conference room space to accommodate the needs of business clients. The room is called the Oak Boardroom, which contains a rather large, unique triangle-shaped table. To facilitate audio conferencing capabilities, the hotel had previously been using a single Polycom SoundStation wired conference phone on the table. However, their clients were frequently unhappy with the performance of the unit because participants seated around the table were not able to adequately hear or be heard on conference calls.

The Challenge
The Marriott University Park Hotel’s Oak Boardroom is located on the 3rd floor of the hotel and is approximately 26’ x 26’ wide, encompassing 676 square feet. The room comes complete with a large triangular table that comfortably fits 13 executive style chairs, A/V equipment for multimedia presentations, internet access, and on-site technicians for immediate support as needed.

This room is one of the most utilized meeting spaces in the hotel. The hotel’s business clientele enjoy the view of the 1st floor atrium that the space overlooks, and the larger shaped table can accommodate larger groups of people without being crowded into a small room and table.

Given the size of the room, along with the shape of the conference table, the single Polycom wired conference phone system did not cover the space well enough to allow for the entire room’s attendees to be heard or hear very well.

In addition, the multiple wires connected to the Polycom phone were often in the way as guests maneuvered around the room; they also cluttered the otherwise clean look of the room.

The Solution
Debra Brandsrud, the hotel’s general manager, contacted a ClearOne sales representative and began discussing the hotel’s audio conferencing needs. After reviewing the requirements of the Oak Boardroom, ClearOne recommended the MAXAttach™ Wireless solution. The MAXAttach Wireless provided a perfect fit for the boardroom. It is the industry’s only dual-unit wireless conference phone system, which provides double the number of speakers and microphones for expanded coverage and enhanced communication in larger rooms. Each phone also has its own controls so participants, regardless of where they are seated in the room, can conveniently dial a call, mute microphones or adjust volume settings.

It features advanced audio technologies found in ClearOne’s market-leading professional conferencing systems, and delivers crystal clear sound that enables natural conversations between conference call participants. And because it is wireless, it can be easily picked up and moved to wherever a conference call needs to be held, all without the clutter of a wired phone.

ClearOne’s MAXAttach Wireless product in the Oak Boardroom also delivers:

150-foot signal range for use in multiple rooms within range of the base station

12-hour battery life for lengthy conferences without the need to recharge

Advanced level management, which adjusts microphone and speaker levels based on how loudly participants are talking to improve voice quality for participants on both ends of the call

64-bit encrypted wireless communication to ensure secure conferencing Results
The Marriott Salt Lake City University Park hotel’s Oak Boardroom is now not only a large space that accommodates a large group of people, but also provides a superior audio conferencing experience. Customers enjoy full-room audio coverage, and the MAXAttach Wireless phones maintain the clean look of the room. In addition, the phones are often carried to other rooms to enable conferencing anytime, anywhere.

The hotel’s clientele feedback on the new system has been very positive. The hotel’s general manager Debra Brandsrud noted that she’s been extremely satisfied with ClearOne’s MAXAttach Wireless: “It’s been a big hit with my customers. ClearOne has provided a much-needed solution for businesses and an overall superior experience with the hotel.”