• Project Management for the AV Industry  -- Instructor: Steve Thorburn, PE, CTS-D, CTS-I. and Lisa Thorburn, CTS.
• Streaming -- Instructor: Scott Sharer, CTS.
• All About Audio -- Instructor: Gordon Moore, CTS.

Both sets of Criteria plot the noise level measured in a room against a set of curves across the different standard octave bands that are used in our acoustical work.  For Noise Criteria we plot the octave band sound pressure levels in 8 bands and then select the highest curve that is crossed to come up with a single number to report.  The Noise Criteria curve very closely resembles equal loudness curves that correspond to our sensitivity to higher frequency tones and our lack of sensitivity to lower frequency tones.

For Room Criteria we plot the sound pressure levels in the same 8 bands, and we also look at the curve, but now we must add a subjective decision to the curve to report the level.  The RC curve is a straight line with a slope of 5 decibels per octave (in English, it does not correspond to how we hear).

• Power the system on and off
• Select the proper meeting set up; the system could be used for meetings from 7 to 39 depending on the governing body that was using the facility.
• Board Member’s Page with list of Board Member’s associated with their seat at the dais. The clerk has the ability to edit/add/remove names for board member’s. Once set these board member names will be stored for future use. The Clerk has the ability to mark a board member absent or non-voting for that session. Once set the board member assignments will be used for subsequent voting and vote tallying pages.
• Display control with controls to turn on/off the video projection equipment and determine what source is displayed on the Video Projection Screens.
• Lighting and volume control. 
• Audio and Video conference system control.
• Presenter Timer controls the public speaker’s allotted time and allotted warning time in one-minute increments. The Clerk and Session Chairperson have the ability to stop/start/pause the allotted time. These timer settings control 3 lights at the podium to alert the presenter of their status.
• The voting module uses the currently selected Board member’s page along with columns for their vote.  When the Clerk initiates voting this tally area will indicate voting is occurring and will provides indication which member has cast their vote. It does not show their actual vote until the clerk selects the Vote Tally button. At that point the actual votes will be displayed by the member’s name on all of the video projectors and monitors.
• Speaker Queue Page with buttons indicating who has selected their request to speak button and the order in which that was selected. The Clerk or the Session Chairperson has the ability to select the next speaker which will un-mute their microphone or to directly select anyone on the list which will cause their name to move to the top of the list and un-mute their microphone. 

The Chair of the Session has the following limited control:

• Speaker Queue Page.
• The volume and mute controls for each board member’s microphone.
• The chairperson has the ability to pass the chair position to any other member at the dais at which point their panel will assume the chair functions and the previous Chair’s panel will revert to a regular member panel, the Chair’s panel functions can only be passed, they can not be taken.  When the system is turned on a selected default position is selected as chair.

The Solution

The County of Riverside is the fourth largest county in California, stretching nearly 200 miles across and comprising over 7,200 square miles of fertile river valleys, low deserts, mountains, foothills and rolling plains.  By 2003, the County was "home" to over 1.7 million residents - more than the entire population of 13 states, among them Maine, Nevada, Hawaii, and New Hampshire.

When Thorburn Associates Inc. was brought on board for the acoustical and audiovisual engineering, we were able to incorporate the design of the room with the technology design.  The original plan included front projection with sight line issues from both the camera and display systems.  The building design allowed for dual rear-projection displays on the left and right sides of the full Dais layout.  The Board and Committee members view all display information on XGA flat panel displays.  To support the viewing of high-resolution images, all visual images are scaled to XGA resolution when viewed in the chambers.  Likewise all computer images are scaled for display in the lobby and for the feed to the cable television system.

All of the audiovisual technology seen in the boardroom has been integrated into the casework for a clean finished look.  The production control area can view the activities of the boardroom through one-way glass; the “static equipment” is located in the equipment room behind the main Dais area.