Challenge

Austin City Hall is a unique landmark building, which serves as “a gathering place for public discourse and community collaboration with informality, friendliness, environmental sensitivity and innovative technology.” When the building was being planned, Austin City Hall and its construction and design partners set out to find an AV solutions provider that had the expertise to match the functional, artistic and timeline requirements for the audiovisual components throughout the facility. They chose Whitlock to design, procure and implement best in class technologies for this highly interactive and visual environment.

Solution

The Whitlock team implemented a full suite of audiovisual products that helped to make Austin City Hall a true modern design showcase. The integration of broadcast and audiovisual systems into back end systems enables the thousands of visitors each year to access and share important information about residency, the city and its policies. The 350+ employees of the facility and other local business partners enjoy taking advantage of the latest interactive technologies for hosting meetings, collaborating on special projects and exchanging important data efficiently. Whitlock’s design team helped Austin City Hall meet its goals for innovation, while also managing their expenditures as a responsible public serving organization. The final solution included engineering three high-end Broadcast Production Studios, the Council Chambers room, a Lobby Presentation system, the Boards and Commissions Room, the City Manager’s Office and over 20 additional meeting spaces with state-of-the-art audiovisual systems. Whitlock continues to serve the City of Austin with an ongoing Priority Service Plan, which includes preventive maintenance and guaranteed response times for this now internationally acclaimed facility. Of special note, all work was completed within the LEED’s Green Building Requirements and in a tightly compressed time schedule.

Technology Highlights

Broadcast Productions Studios: Ross Synergy switchers, Pro-Bel routing, Sundance Digital automation, 360 Systems video recorder / servers, Storbank mass video storage, Apple Final Cut Pro HD Non Linear Editing System, and a complete Crestron control system.

Council Chambers: Christie Digital DLP video wall with custom rolling base, NEC 61” plasma displays, theatrical lighting system, Sony 3-chip PTZ cameras, speech and live music sound reinforcement systems, custom lecterns and presentation consoles, and a sophisticated Crestron e-voting and control system.

Lobby presentation systems: Four Clarity Bobcat 40” LCD flat panels set in custom bronze weatherproof enclosures with audio systems and Crestron touch panels for interactive video on demand.

Videoconferencing Capabilities: Cisco/ Tandberg codec and video streaming at multiple stream rates utilizing Viewcast Niagara products.