MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota Supreme Court's Courtroom 300, the larger of two courtrooms visible to the public via KTCA in St. Paul and the Internet, recently upgraded with a new Vaddio ProductionVIEW FX switcher and three WallVIEW PRO 300 PTZ camera systems. AV integrator MSpace also updated the audio system. "The ProductionVIEW FX not only featured a preview window for operator control, but also RS-232 remote control," said MSpace sales engineer/designer Tom Larson. The remote control allowed Larson to create a voice activated, hands-free, operator-less system using a Biamp Nexia audio DSP system with Audio Technica RFI shielded microphones.
Microphones were installed for each of the Supreme Court Justices, and a lectern microphone for giving oral arguments to the court. These mics connected to the Biamp mixer that included LOGIC boxes capable of sending RS-232 code information to the ProductionVIEW FX.
"Depending on the speaker, code sent to the ProductionVIEW FX specified not only which camera to use to capture the speaker, but also to trigger a preset within the camera to capture the person talking," Larson said.
"Vaddio products were chosen for three reasons – a variety of camera types, their Cat5 cabling solution and the hands-on/hands-free control options," Larson noted. "The Minnesota Supreme Court now has improved video quality on all of the streaming and recording sessions, and video transitioning from speaker to speaker is easy and not distracting to the viewer."
The building is wired to support interactive video court hearings, conferences and training programs between the judicial center and other locations throughout the state.
"We've worked with Vaddio on numerous installations in a variety of settings. They carry high-end cameras, but also support economical solutions that happen to solve problems other cameras cannot. Is there a camera involved? Do we need to cable over Cat5? We'll use Vaddio again. And again."
For more information, please visit www.vaddio.com.
