Meetings Streamlined and Broadcast Thanks to Council Chamber AV Overhaul

The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority was created on January 1, 2003, as an independent agency to manage the day-to-day operations of San Diego International Airport and address the region’s long-term air transportation needs. The legislation that created the Airport Authority mandates three main responsibilities; to operate the San Diego International Airport, to plan for the future air transportation needs of the region, and to serve as the region’s Airport Land Use Commission – ensuring the adoption of land use plans that protect public health and safety surrounding all 16 of the county’s airports.

The Airport Authority is governed by an appointed board of nine members who represent all areas of San Diego County and three ex-officio members. Three members serve as the Executive Committee alongside several committees in charge of personnel, compensation, finance, auditing and capital improvement program oversight.

Video inputs are available at every council member station as well as the podium for guests to speak. Video’s displayed on screen are controlled through a Crestron DigitalMedia system using a dedicated iPad to choose what is shown on screen.

With such far-reaching and varying responsibilities to oversee, the Airport Authority needed a meeting space for board members and committees to meet on matters of importance, while members of the public could sit in to witness the meetings or participate themselves. The Airport Authority decided to overhaul the AV system within the council chamber to allow for a number of presentation and digital signage capabilities. The idea was to have several display screens around the room that could help guide and provide context for meetings. The space would also need to allow for a fair amount of BYOD – presenters would need to be able to plug in to the system to display content over the screens while they make cases for or against potential and ongoing projects.

The Airport Authority hired ITAV Solutions to help them realize the needs they had for new AV in the space. Jordan Lopez, Director of Membership Sales for ITAV Solutions, created the design and provided account management for the project.

“It was actually a two-part [project],” says Lopez. “Part one was all video updating, went from analog, more like a production-type system, to a Crestron DigitalMedia system – full matrix switching, all digital, with Crestron control. All new displays. And then phase two was basically all the audio except for microphones and speakers. Basically it was two [Symetrix] Radius DSPs, Edge Frame, with twelve AEC cards, and then four outputs with an additional two extender boxes. So it’s really, basically, 32 outputs. We also did some digital streaming stuff where they record the meetings, put it on the server and stream it out to whoever didn’t make the meeting.”