Staffordshire County Council

Staffordshire County Council are continually striving to improve its services and have received several major awards for innovative projects and excellence awards for highways, children's services and recycling among others. Part of this modernisation programme included the refurbishment of  County Buildings to provide cutting edge Audio Visual facilities for Members, staff and outside organisations.

Sound Advice won the competitive tender to design fit and supply the new conference audio system in the chamber and committee rooms, complimented by projectors, autotrack cameras, hard of hearing and webcasting systems.

Please click here for a full profile
Please click here to see the webcasts

Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

The Grade II Listed building was started in 1932 and was opened officially by HRH Edward, Prince of Wales in December 1933. The overall cost to build and fit out the Town Hall was £188,037, 12 shillings and 10 old pennies. With the microphones removed, the chamber still looks exactly as it did when it was new.  With the microphones inserted and at the touch of a button on the controller, the chamber now  automatically transforms into one of the most up to date, fully digital conference audio visual and webcasting systems in the country.

For a full profile, please click here

City of Bradford Metropolitan Council.

Sound Advice has just completed a 120 way DIS conference system for the City of Bradford Metropolitan Council. The new delegates units have an LCD touch screen that enables delegates to view the agenda, check the minutes of the meeting, vote and using the chip card feature, sit anywhere in the chamber to vote.

Rother District Council

Rother District Council in East Sussex has a 35 way beyer 50 series conference audio system to enable the room to be laid out in difference configurations. The main projector can be seen on the right which projects onto an electronically operated rear projection screen which has been retracted for this photo.

London Borough of Barnet

The London Borough of Barnet has purchased 130 Beyer digital radio conference units with voting and four controllers for use in the Chamber and committee rooms in the newly refurbished Civic Suite in Hendon Town Hall.

An Independent Government Body which conducts in-depth inquiries has recently upgraded their audio visual capabilities

Their decisions are frequently seen in the news and front pages of the financial papers.

The Commission is always busy and on some days, the rooms can be set up in several different configurations when a major hearing splits into smaller break out sessions, then reconfigured back to one large room, all in an afternoon.

For a full profile, please click here

Elmbridge Borough Council

Elmbridge Borough Council have two, 2.5 metre screens and projectors, one is out of picture under the photographer, at opposite sides of the chamber. Located here ensures that everyone in the chamber and public gallery can see clearly. The video is also relayed to the three committee rooms where three standalone presentation systems were installed. Leading manufacturer Televic, who provide the equipment and support for the conference equipment in the European Parliaments, supplied 80 of their flush delegate units that provide fully functional voting and chipcard registration which in turn drives the autotrack camera follow system.

Epping Forest District Council

Epping Forest District Council has a new 45 way dual delegate DIS conference system that drives the autotrack cameras for the webcast that can be seen here

Basingstoke & Deane Council

Basingstoke & Deane Council operate and host their own webcasting site for the viewing of meetings, customer information etc, which can be seen here. The council chose the RCF Forum 9000 series for their new conference audio system in the chamber and committee rooms which provides delegate chip card registration, voting and automatic camera follow.

Knowsley Metropolitan Council

Knowsley Metropolitan Council opted for the DIS conference system with the delegates units fitted flush to the bench tops. Dual projector screens with plasma panels for the public seating, hard of hearing and loudspeakers for the public address completed the system.

North Tyneside Metropolitan Council

Utilising two controllers enables two meetings of 35 delegates each to be held simultaneously in separate rooms in the new Civic Suite at North Tyneside Metropolitan Council. Once the dividing acoustic screen is retracted, one of the controllers is quickly reconfigured to manage all 70 delegates units in one space for the full council meetings.

Merseyside Police Authority

The chairman's position, top right, at the Merseyside Police Authority showing the new DIS flush panels set into the furniture.

Brighton Town Hall

Built in 1830, Brighton Town Hall is a fine listed building so none of the equipment, with the exception of the visuals, could be fixed. The Council chose the Beyer cableless digital radio conference system with voting to replace the old cabled audio system. Twin projector screens that retract when not in use reveal the oil paintings so the room reverts to its original state very quickly.

Peterborough City Council

Peterborough City Council now have a fully portable 80 way Beyer digital conference system and RCF radio loudspeakers. Using a second Beyer controller, the delegates units can be split between the two to enable two simultaneous meetings of 40 delegates to take place.

Caerphilly County Borough Council

Caerphilly County Borough Council and their Project Architects, Kennedy James Griffiths of Cardiff, chose the RCF Forum digital conference and camera system from Sound Advice for the main chamber in their new Civic Offices. The Forum system provides two channels of simultaneous interpretation, chip card registration, voting, public address, Infrared hard of hearing and camera follow to automatically show the delegate who is speaking.

The London Borough of Hounslow

The London Borough of Hounslow regularly webcasts their committee and full council meetings and chose the Forum digital cabled system from RCF for their new 75 way conference system.

West Lindsey District Council

West Lindsey District Council in Gainsborough have a 50 way Beyer digital radio conference system with integral voting. There are three acoustic screens in the chamber which can be closed to make three conference rooms or completely retracted for when the space is used for full council. The projector signals in the three rooms can be split to allow for the different configurations, along with the audio and hard of hearing systems. The technicians room is shown, right, with the delegates charging cases and the webcasting racks and signal processing, all operated from within the chamber by a CUE touch screen controller.

Odder Council, Denmark

Sound Advice have supplied the new delegate audio system for Odder Council in Denmark which provides the audio feed for the Public i webcast. Installed as part of the EU eParticipate project, over 34 representatives from seven European countries recently attended a two day User Group meeting as the project now enters the final phase of its deployment. A webcast of the eParticipate European User Group Workshop can be viewed here http://www.odder.public-i.tv/

Worcestershire County Council

Sound Advice worked closely with the in-house design team at Worcestershire County Council to provide state of the art and totally flexible audio visual and conference facilities. 60 Beyer digital radio cableless delegates units with voting provide the main audio and also controls the camera follow. Infrared for the hard of hearing and public address provides audio throughout the chamber. Multiple plug-in points around the chamber, anti rooms and committee rooms allow for 50” LCD panels on wheels to be connected to relay the proceedings to other points around the building. Cue master  touch screen control and digital projectors & visualisers complete the system.

The Welsh Assembly

The Welsh Assembly in Cardiff chose a 70 way RCF Forum digital conference system from Sound Advice for the refurbishment of the old main Chamber. The room is primarily used for Education and large Committee meetings and using the new Sony broadcast cameras for delegate autotracking, will be a standby room in the event that the main Chamber becomes unavailable. A 90 way, two channel simultaneous interpretation system provides Welsh and English to the delegates and the public seating areas.

London Borough of Greenwich

The London Borough of Greenwich have installed two Beyer digital radio controllers in their committee rooms, one of which is mobile, to provide flexible meeting spaces that include hard of hearing and sound reinforcement systems. The Great Hall, below, was also furnished with a sound reinforcement system that included a Nexia digital processor to provide equalisation and  feedback control that guaranteed an excellent sound in a very difficult acoustic environment.

Kirklees Metropolitan Council

Kirklees Metropolitan Council has totally refurbished the chamber in the Grade II listed Town Hall in Huddersfield and chose Sound Advice to design, fit and supply an RCF digital conference system. The AV equipment includes digital audio with voting, chip card registration and camera follow, infrared hard of hearing, twin projectors and screens for presentations and voting results, video links to the public seating and  adjoining rooms and a complete CUE touch screen master control.

Lincolnshire County Council

Lincolnshire County Council has a new digital conference system installed that is complete with voting, presentation video and radio microphones, infrared hard of hearing, sound reinforcement, projectors, plasma panels and autotrack camera follow. Using the chip card registration facility, the members can sit anywhere in the room and the computer will immediately register thedelegates new location. Autotrack cameras show the delegate who is speaking on the large screen and this picture and audio is recorded and sent to the Webcast encoder. The Webcast by Public-i can be seen here.

Read an article on our installation that was published in InAVate magazine, the European trade journal for Audio Visual professionals here.

Kings Lynn Borough Council

The newly refurbished Chamber and Committee rooms at Kings Lynn Borough Council are designed to be completely flexible and using the Beyer digital radio conference system, the rooms can be set up and cleared in minutes. Using the top of the range MCWD200 system, Parliamentary and multiple choice voting is available, the results from which are shown on the main screen and three Plasma relay panels around the room. Interactive whiteboards, autotrack camera follow, infrared and loop hard of hearing, presentation radio microphones and PA, all controlled by a Crestron touch screen controller, complete the facilities.

Wandsworth Council, London

64 digital radio delegates microphone / loudspeaker units have been provided for the Members and a public address system relays the speech to the public seating and balcony.

By linking the microphone to an autodome camera, a picture of the delegate speaking is shown on the screens either side of the dias. The screens also show powerpoint presentations.

Derby City Council

The touch screen panel that controls the voting and delegates waiting list from the 85 delegate Bosch DCN conference system can be seen to the right of the dias. There are 6, 12" TFT flat panels to enable the top table delegates to view the picture displayed on the main screen on their personal panels.The images available include computer generated pictures such as power point and DVD and video playback and also there is an autodome camera that can be seen just above the coat of arms that shows the delegate who is speaking on the screens. 

Forest Heath Council

The Council Chamber at Forest Heath District Council in Mildenhall, Suffolk where there are 36 Beyer digital radio conference units with voting and auto track camera follow.

The live video pictures, DVD output and voting results are shown on a large electric screen while two 42” mobile plasma screens display the information to the two public seating areas.

The audio, which is relayed to the public seating via loudspeakers and infrared hard of hearing systems, is also digitally recorded.

Fareham Magistrates Court

Fareham Magistrates Court was completed in 1994 but after a few month’s use, it became clear that the proceedings could not be followed in the public seating at the back of the court. This was particularly apparent when the defence and prosecution were talking to the bench, directly away from the rest of the court.

The Bench, Witness, Dock, Prosecution, Defence and Clerks positions were each fitted with an AKG stalk microphone. They are designed to pick up speech clearly from a distance up to around two feet, but reject any signals coming from other directions.

Now, sitting anywhere in the room, the speech is natural, crisp, and highly intelligible, but not so loud as to be overbearing.

To compliment the system, an infrared system for the hard of hearing has been installed and the infrared emitter can just be seen, fitted on top of the left hand loudspeaker.

Tamworth Borough Council

Tamworth Borough Council have a 10 delegate portable system with projectors in the committee room and a 35 delegate Taiden conference system with voting in the main chamber, below. A projector, screen, Induction loop, public address and radio microphones complete the systems.