Communication Systems Integration of San Francisco
City Hall Boosts Public Access to City Government

One of the Industry's Most Complex Projects Finds Innovative Solutions
To Prepare City Hall for the Next Millennium

When San Francisco City Hall re-opens on January 5, 1999, Ceitronics will be the systems integrator for one of the largest and most complex audio-video projects in the countrythe $5 million design and installation of a state-of-the-art audio-video communications system integrated throughout City Hall. The fast track project, which began in January, 1998, was completed in December of 1998 during post-Loma Prieta earthquake renovation.

Hidden inside the ornate Beaux Arts walls of the historic building, the new communications system installed by Ceitronics provides for amplification and recording of city government procedures, and links council chambers and committee meeting rooms for public broadcast access to most City Hall proceedings. Marble facing and hardwood paneling was removed from City Hall's steel skeleton to repair structural damage caused by the earthquake, providing an opportunity for the building to be completely rewired for advanced communications capabilities. Ceitronics unspooled miles of interconnected fiber optic and copper cables in City Hall, now enclosed within its newly restored surfaces.

"Ceitronics is one of a handful of system integrators within the United States that could execute a project of this level of complexity in a space of this size with this kind of turnaround," said Ceitronics project manager Jim Thielemann.

The City Hall audio-video integration is part of the $293 million seismic upgrade and other improvements to the 83-year-old national historic landmark, considered by many preservationists to be the most significant interior public space in the country. The 500,000 square foot granite and marble monument covers two city blocks. It was damaged significantly in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, when the force of the quake twisted the building's 90,000-ton dome like a cap on a bottle, and cracked the walls and roof substantially.

The integration, designed by audio-video consultant Ken Fause of Smith, Fause, & McDonald of San Francisco, includes a complex weaving of audio, video and communication technologies within the rigid architectural confines of a historic building.

The new audio-video systems provide many benefits to the public, as well as to elected officials, commission members, and city employees. For the first time, any public meeting, such as one held by the Planning Commission, can be broadcast to an at-home audience from any one of five designated meeting rooms. New video and audio technology installed in each of the rooms allows the public to use modern presentation technologies such as Power Point and other computer-generated materials, when making a presentation to committee members or supervisors.

The new technology also streamlines meeting flow, allowing meeting participants to communicate in a more orderly and clearer fashion. The chairman or president of the board can now track a meeting-participant's request to speak from a touch screen which each participant is provided with, instead of responding to a raised hand. Innovative quorum technology will automatically notify all supervisors and commission members when a meeting is being scheduled, ensuring a higher attendance level. Staff efficiency will be improved by the computerized procedures and simplified meeting notifications. The newly installed fiber optic infrastructure provides for future upgrade potential as technology changes through the 21st Century.

“Ceitronics had to integrate 21st Century audio-visual systems within the historic building with zero architectural impact,” Thielemann said. “Our work is invisible upon completion. None of the hundreds of conduit runs were placed on the interior walls because of restrictions regarding the ornate marble; thus, concealed conduits were used. Also, traditional projection systems would have detracted from the beauty of the Manchurian oak paneling, so alternative solutions were provided for video presentation.”

Space and cooling limitations, as well as the historic character of the building, dictated that the majority of the audio-visual equipment was placed in the basement. The basement now contains two broadcast studios, the head-end computer control center, and routers for all of the video and audio systems, MATV, and processors.

The project was challenged by the very limited amount of conduit between the meeting rooms and the basement. “Smith, Fause & McDonald's solution was to install networks on fiber as the transportation medium for all signal types,” Thielemann added. Video is sent directly from cameras in the meeting chambers over fiber via transceivers to the basement. The video signals are then sent to a Pesa Matrix switcher for distribution. This allows the broadcast studios to originate a broadcast from any of five meeting rooms. Video broadcast signals are sent back up to the rooms via fiber for display on touch panels or on TVs. For the first time, all public meetings can be broadcast to the general public as well as throughout City Hall offices.

Audio is pre-amplified, digitized, and multiplexed. It is then processed by the Peavey Media Matrix equipment, routed and distributed by the routing switcher, and re-multiplexed and sent back to each meeting room. There it is converted back into analog, and amplified for distribution in the room.

This lengthy audio signal “chain” required custom software developed by Peak Audio for the Rave multiplexer for the QSC Rave product, called Rapid Rave. The Rave system reduces signal delay and full loop transmission time to allow the Media Matrix system ample processing time. The unique pairing of QSC Rapid Rave and Peavey Media Matrix is the first marriage of these technologies.

The City of San Francisco's unique governmental needs require a remote control system that will store large amounts of information. For instance, more than 40 governmental committees and commissions will meet in City Hall on a regular basis. These committees can meet in any of the five rooms involved in the renovation. Each committee has different members and different rules of order. The remote control system needs to know basic information about each committee and its members in order for the meeting to be conducted properly. This is accomplished by storing all of the required information in a database on a server located in the basement.

The database and touch screens were custom-designed by Crestron, a New Jersey-based designer and manufacturer of remote control and automation systems.

The database keeps track of all commission or committee meetings. When a clerk logs in on a touch panel, the remote control system is told which meeting will be conducted. The system then requests the needed information from the server. The system then notifies members when a meeting is to take place. The message is generated and then sent to a supervisor or committee member through personalized E-mail, or through a voice message, a paging beeper or a cell phone call.

A reminder is also sent over the City Hall TV systemit flashes up on strategically located television screens. Confirmation and message acknowledgments are sent by E-mail, the telephone, or through the custom-designed touch panel workstation. The responses of the members are tracked by the database, and reported back to the clerk.

The remote control system panels are customized to fit aesthetically in each meeting room's dais. The touch panels were designed to provide several features which include video playback, audio reinforcement, integrated microphones and touch screen button control capabilities.

The touch panel can be adjusted for video and still images or to watch the rebroadcast of the meetings. Supervisors can vote, signal the sergeant-at-arms, call their staff, communicate with the clerk, select what they want to look at, or monitor the broadcast systemall from their touch panels.

"This project had a lot of challenges,” said Thielemann. “The tight schedule, considering the size of the project, was probably the biggest one. Coordinating with all the manufacturers, other contractors and the subcontractors was another. Then there were all the technical challenges of the system itself, plus the unique applications. It's very complex.

"Before, City Hall had no presentation capability, and no way to deal with overflow crowds. On opening day, every room will be a potential overflow room, and every room will be interactive."

Ceitronics has also been the systems integrator on a number of other public buildings in the Bay Area, including City of Oakland Council Chambers, City of Alameda Council Chambers, Hayward City Hall (designer as well as systems integrator), City of Fremont Council Chambers, the Sacramento County Board Hearing Room, and the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House.