San Jose and Silicon Valley Business Journal Page 14 January 15, 1999

Ceitronics: wiring San Francisco for the 21st Century

By Erik Espe Business Journal staff writer

When San Francisco City Hall reopened Jan. 5 after a yearlong, $293 million post-Loma Prieta earthquake renovation, it gave San Franciscans more to celebrate that a return to municipal business as usual.

The new City Hall also has been upgraded for the new millennium, with state-of the-art computer and communications systems that offer both the media and the public quicker, easier access to elected officials.

And it was a San Jose company that made it possible. Ceitronics Inc., a 100-employee systems integrator, won the contract in 1998 to wire City Hall for the 21st Century.

“Jobs like this don’t come around every day,” said Jim Thielemann, the company’s City Hall project manager.

It was the most challenging job the 13-year-old private company has ever faced, according to co-founder and President Aaron Colton. All of the work had to be done without violating national historic preservation guidelines, which mandate that no new technology could mar t5he historic beauty of the building, built in 1916.

That meant weaving a complex mix of audio, video and communications technology through a limited amount of conduit space. The system had to be strong enough to support the needs of 80 municipal committees and dozens of media outlets, while remaining invisible to the naked eye.

“You had 100 miles of cable going into a limited conduit,” said Mr. Colton. “The historical people limited certain aspects of construction.”

It was a task that couldn’t have been c0omnpleted two years ago, according to Mr. Thielemann. The technology simply didn’t ex9ist.

“The equipment, within the time line of the project, was just barely made available as standard product,” he said. For the Œend users” (*mainly media personnel, the public and politicians), the new system makes the business of government quicker and easier.

Supervisors now have touch panels at their seats in committee rooms, giving them instant access to a database. They’re able to vote, register their presence, and 3-mail or page aides using the touch pads.

In the past, many media personnel dreaded going to City Hall because they had to drag cables through the building to connect their video equipment to power sources and broadcast equipment in vans sitting outside. Now, thanks to the new wiring, they can simply “plug and play.” The infrastructure enables them to connect with equipment outside the building without stringing wires inside.

It also enables the city of San Francisco to broadcast public meetings from any of its conference rooms to community cable stations.

Yomi Agunbiade, the city’s telecommunications project manager, called it a “once-in-a-100-years renovation.” But to accomplish it, Ceitronics and San Francisco-based engineering consulting firm Smith, Fause & McDonald had to solve a major problem: the amount of cabling necessary to make all of ?city Hall’s electronic dreams come true wouldn’t fit inside the walls of the building, given the historic preservations demands.

The solution was to consolidate much of the audiovisual equipment that runs the building’s communications system into the basement. City Hall’s basement now contains a computer control center and routers for all video and audio systems.

“We converted all the audio analog components to digital and sent it down to the basement, where we can process, switch or record an send it back,: Mr. Colton said. Digital audio takes up less bandwidth than analog audio. By transferring the sound from meeting rooms to the basement first, then translating it to digital and returning it to the rooms, Ceitronics was able to aver t what would have been a bandwidth bottleneck.

The technology that enabled them to do this wasn’t available just a year age, according to Mr. Colton. This wasn’t the first time Ceitronics has wired public building in the Bay Area. The council chambers of Oakland, Alameda, Hayward and Fremont all use communications and computer systems installed by the firm.

But San Francisco was its biggest job. Every challenge the company has run up against in the past was faced during that project, according to Mr. Colton.

“Every job we’ve doneevery technical jobis wrapped up in this job,” he said.

Other Feature Articles

Making San Francisco’s City Hall Smarter for the New Millennium, CEE News Special Report on DATACOM, page 14 July 1999

New Communications System to Boost Public Participation, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link, Institutional Construction Feb.99

San Francisco City Hall’s Seismic Salvation The $293 million restoration reaches the punch-list phase, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link Institutional Construction Feb.99

Timeline of History of San Francisco City Hall, F.W. Dodge California Construction Link Institutional Construction, page 16 Feb.99

Retooled City Hall Is Finally Ready To Open, San Francisco Chronicle Front Page January 1, 1999

A Treasury of City Hall Trivia, San Francisco Chronicle Bay Area Focus January 1, 1999

Light Years, San Francisco Examiner Magazine Page 7 January 3, 1999

Gold-Plated City Hall, San Francisco Examiner Front Page Dec. 30, 1998

S.F. Celebrates Floating City Hall, San Jose Mercury News Page 3b January 6, 1999

Ceitronics: wiring San Francisco for the 21st Century, San Jose and Silicon Valley Business Journal Page 14 January 15, 1999

Retrofitting “City Hall’, Systems Contractor News Front page, con’t page 17 September, 1998

City Hall by the Bay, Sound & Communications Front page, con’t page 18 February 18, 1999