City of Burnaby Council Chambers

The Burnaby council chamber was designed by architects Toby Russell Buckwell, and we developed the A/V system design. The room has a video presentation system with an electric drop down front projection screen, a high brightness LCD video projector on an electric lift, 15" computer monitors mounted in the mayor/council and staff desks for display of all video-based presentation materials. Video sources include computer presentations that can be sourced from the presenter's positions, staff positions, and the clerk or manager's positions, a video document camera, a slide-to-video converter, and a VCR. The audio system uses miniature shotgun microphones and a mix-minus loudspeaker configuration for the desks, plus an auto-mix buss for the ceiling speakers in the public gallery area. The press desks have audio distribution of the mix, as does Roger's Cable. The cable TV truck also gets a video feed of all presentation material, including scan converted computer presentations.

The touch screen control system allows the city clerk to operate the technical systems, room lights and window shades, and control and preview the video sources. The touch screen also operates the order-of-speaking queue. The mayor has a small touch panel display that allows him to view the names in the queue and/or control the queue if desired. The order of speaking queue has indicators on each desk that let each person know when they are in the queue and when they are live. They can also drop themselves out of the queue if someone else has dealt with their issue. The room is used by several committes as well, so the system can be set for order-of-speaking operation or a free run auto-mix for conventional committee meetings.

Touch panel and monitor         mic and speaker     

This project was done while we worked for BKL Consultants between 1991 and 1997.