Civic
Novato City Council Chambers | Fremont City Council Chambers
Novato City Council Chambers
Novato, CA
The City of Novato retrofitted an old historic church in downtown Novato into their new city council chambers. RGD Acoustics services included mechanical noise and vibration control, interior acoustical design including suppression of noise transfer, establishing a quiet acoustical environment and audiovisual design.
The audiovisual design included a new PA system for the council chambers as well as tie-ins for audio and video to an internet streaming service that would be used to broadcast all council meetings.
A separate environmental noise study was performed by RGD Acoustics to assist with siting of the project since it is located in close proximity to an existing roadway. Based on the study, RGD Acoustics made recommendations for window and wall treatments to mitigate exterior to interior noise transfer.
Architect: Interactive Resources
Fremont City Council Chambers
Fremont, CA
The City of Fremont is in the process of retrofitting their existing council chambers facility. As an upgrade to the current state of technology standards, RGD Acoustics performed a redesign of the system to include high definition display technology, an improved audio DSP platform, streamlined live video production equipment, closed-caption video archiving and streaming over the internet, high definition pan/tilt/zoom SDI cameras, video conferencing, and upgraded remote control and voting systems.
RGD Acoustics’s design concept included replacement of CRT’s and projector with high definition 60” plasma displays, and high definition projection, improvement in live video production workflow by providing a platform which uses touch control for multi-view preview, presentation and recording capability, closed-captioned video encoding of council chamber meetings which are then broadcast to a local cable TV station, recorded, and streamed over the internet, addition of a video server for controlling/scheduling the automated streaming of content over the internet, hard media archiving of council chambers meetings for public record, upgrading voting system activated by touch and button panels in the dais for subsequent display to any of the member/staff LCD or chamber plasma displays, Upgrading audiovisual sources include a ceiling-mounted document camera, and six high definition pan/tilt/zoom SDI cameras, used for broadcast and/or capture of chamber meetings, mix-minus driven LED-enabled microphones at member, staff and clerk positions for reinforcement to the chamber as well as audio and video conferencing, inclusion of a single control system for the activation of all audiovisual sources, transport control, microphone and program muting/volume, audio conferencing, video conferencing, lighting control, and voting.
The room will also support small study sessions with AV sources, projection, voice reinforcement, audio conferencing and audio recording. These sessions are part of the regular activities in the chamber over and above typical meeting functions.
The room can operate in a stand-alone mode where there is no technical assistant, or an operator –assisted mode. In this way, a non-technical user can use the basic functions of the audiovisual system for basic projection of sources, small meetings, audio conferencing, or video conferencing. For council meetings, the operator-assisted mode is used for controlling the cameras, monitoring audio, and managing the signal flow for live video production and recording.