Overall System Architecture
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 meetings and hearings, and links council chamber and committee meeting rooms for public broadcast access to most City Hall proceedings. There is also a master antenna cable TV system that’s used to originate 12 channels on the site. The processing core is in the basement, which houses most of the central locations for servers. 90 miles of interconnected fiber optic and copper cables, enclosed within the newly restored surfaces, carry audio and video signals from rooms on the first, second, third, and fourth floors down to the basement. Signals from the remote control system consoles are also sent to a server in the basement, via Ethernet over fiber. The various signals are processed in the basement’s main equipment room or in broadcast suites, and then sent back up to the appropriate rooms via fiber.

A. Dome
A facility panel provides connections for all system types.

B. Two Large Hearing Rooms, Fourth Floor
Audio, video and control signals are carried to the basement over fiber. The rooms are equipped with robotic cameras for gavel-to-gavel broadcasting. The rooms have built-in graphics display systems. Video display touch control panels that interact with the remote control system database display information and messages. Facility panels within the room allow for electronic press hookup.

C. Two Small Hearing Rooms, Fourth Floor
Audio signals are carried to the basement over fiber. The rooms are equipped for audio only. Camera mounting positions are installed to allow for graceful conversion to gavel-to-gavel broadcasting should the city require it.

D. Press Conference Room, Third Floor
Audio, video, and control signals are carried to the basement over fiber. The room is equipped with robotic cameras for live broadcasting, both by the City’s Channel 54, and by television stations. A large camera area, complete with audio and video pool feeds, allows for tripod set up. Overhead microphones permit picking up questions from the floor. Wireless microphones are also available. Video display touch control panels that interact with the remote control system database display information and messages. Facility panels within the room allow for electronic hookup, eliminating the need for cabling that was formerly brought into the building through the doors from broadcast media vans.

E. Council Chambers, Second Floor
All wiring is concealed. Audio, video and control signals are carried to the basement over fiber. Supervisors and clerks are equipped with color video displays that are innovative control system touch panels. Several usually separate items have been consolidated into each touch panel, including capabilities for video playback, audio reinforcement, and an integrated microphone. The control system allows Supervisors to call staff, vote, communicate with the clerk, select what they want to look at, or request recognition electronically. The room is equipped with six robotic cameras for gavel-to-gavel broadcasting. The chamber can accommodate public testimony through a standing lectern, a seated wheelchair, a wheelchair accessible lectern and bi-telephone. The bi-telephone provides a radio talk show response by allowing public call-in comment on scheduled and agenda issues. Facility panels within the room allow for electronic press hookup without the use of cabling.

F. Committee Rooms, Second Floor
Audio, video and control signals are carried to the basement over fiber. The rooms are equipped with large robotic cameras for gavel-to-gavel broadcasting coverage. They are also equipped for visual display to the public with built-in, large screen rear projection systems. The lectern is equipped with a Wolf Visualizer, basically a document camera system that was installed to facilitate the public’s ease of use in displaying documents. These rooms also support computer graphics input at the public lectern. Graphics can be scanned and re-processed for broadcast coverage. Facility panels within the room allow for electronic press hookup without the use of cabling.

G. Rotunda, First Floor
The main floor of the rotunda is equipped with facility panels to allow for electronic press hookup without bringing cabling from broadcast vans into the building. There is a position for a lectern at the landing just above the main floor on the grand staircase. The lectern, which also provides press pool feeds, contains a rapid deployment sound system with portable loud speakers.

H. Light Courts, First Floor
Equipped with heavy-scale rigging points if staging is required, and also equipped with event power. The rooms have facility panels to allow for electronic press hookup.

I. Main Equipment Room, Basement
All Video Signals are sent to a Pesa Matrix switcher for distribution to the broadcast suites and MATV system. Audio signals are pre-amplified, digitized, multiplexed and processed by Peavey Media Matrix equipment, routed and distributed by the routing switcher, re-multiplexed and sent back to the rooms, converted back into analog, and amplified for distribution in the rooms.

J. Broadcast Studios, Basement
These studios contain a television technical center and two television-equipped control rooms. The broadcast studios can originate a broadcast from any of five meeting rooms. The control rooms are equipped with robotic camera control with shot-recall systems, video switcher, graphics systems and audio mixing. Audio and video tape recorders are also in the control room so the control crew can do their own taping. The broadcast studio sends video broadcast signals back up to any of the rooms via fiber for display on touch panels or on TVs. Simultaneous taping from several rooms is possible.

K. Remote Control System Server, Basement
The database is on a server that interacts with the remote control systems located within each room. When a user logs in on a touch panel, the remote control system requests the needed information from the server. The communication with the server is conducted via Ethernet over fiber.

L. Exterior, Polk and Grove Streets
Equipped with a facility panel for the broadcast media. Media vans can park around the facility panel, which provides the electronics to hook up to the building with a fiber patch cord. Cable running through the doors is eliminated.

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