Today’s local government is looking for ways to improve the way public meetings and elections are held. The Maloof Auditorium in Decatur, Georgia is an example of a local government implementing new technologies, and changing the way they hold Board of Commissioner’s meetings in Dekalb County. These technology upgrades make the government process and public forums more transparent to the citizens of Decatur.
TSAV put into place a system and design that would meet the Dekalb County Board of Commissioner’s needs as well as anticipate future growth. A wireless voting system was installed allowing for a more fluid voting process. The voting system allows for easier casting, and counting of votes during elections, and the voting results can be projected up in the auditorium for the public viewing. Each Commissioner has a personal monitor at their seat, and a Crestron touch panel that allows for total user control over the video projection feed. If need be, a Commissioner can block the projection feed, and send the video to their personal monitors. A Wolfvision documentation camera captures the commissioner’s meetings and other events held in the auditorium and can be projected onto a screen or displayed on plasma screens hung throughout the room.
Technical Services Audio Visual has long been a leader of Governmental design solutions. When the 3.5 million dollar renovations began on Decatur’s Historic City Hall, TSAV was called in to handle the buildings audiovisual needs. In recent years, local governments have turned to audiovisual companies to provide new communication technologies that make government meetings and procedures more transparent to the public.
With significant renovations done to the interior of the City Hall, TSAV took special care to keep the aesthetics of the beautiful historic building untouched throughout the design and installation process. Two 63-inch flat screen Samsung Monitors were hung in the Commissioner’s Chamber for the public to view when attending public meetings. Eight personal monitors were installed at each seat for the Commissioner’s personal use. Cameras where placed strategically throughout the chamber, and connected to a broadcasting system, allowing the City Hall to record, stream, and archive the Commissioner’s meetings. Custom mute buttons for the Chamber ’s microphones where designed by TSAV staff, giving the local government everything they need to hold more efficient meetings.
Not only does the Decatur City Hall have a beautiful restored look, but a state of the art audiovisual system as well.
Historic Washington, Georgia has seen some changes over the years. In 2007 one of Washington, Georgia’s historic sites was renovated and given new life as an inclusive event facility. TSAV had the Pope Center outfitted with the most advanced, up to date, and user-friendly audiovisual systems for superior meeting, conferencing, and lecturing environments. The center has the capability of having face-to-face meetings between Washington, Georgia and the rest of the world. From the largest meeting room, a conference of 350 people can have a videoconference, where one can see and hear the other participants in real time, with as many as 8 other sites around the world. The center features a large format projection system for computer and video Images, as well as a state of the art audio reinforcement and conferencing system that can accommodate from one lecturer to a panel discussion of up to 8 members in the room and countless others around the world.
TSAV implemented one of their most innovative services into the Pope Center, the Casscade, desktop and video streaming server. The Casscade system allows the Pope Center’s clients to record the voice and video from their events simultaneously, giving them the ability to not only stream their event, but actually record any lectures, meetings, or speeches for later use. The Casscade system has given the Pope Center a unique advantage over other event centers, allowing them to archive events and offer their clients a service that cannot be found anywhere else in the country.
If a smaller scale videoconference is desired, the center has a portable cart that can be moved into any of the three breakout rooms or the conference room. The breakout rooms are outfitted with audio systems, and the central breakout room is outfitted with a permanent projection screen and projector for meetings, conferences or lectures on a more intimate level. TSAV worked closely with the local Washington, Georgia government on this historic renovation to ensure that the event facility would be flawless, while maintaining the historic site’s aesthetic. Great care was taken during all phases of the instillation process. Finally, the center boasts a conference room equipped with a projector and screen, as well as audio system for roundtable discussions, or war room style meetings. Whatever the expectations maybe with regards to audiovisual in a conference center maybe, The Pope Center will exceed them.
Its not everyday five former secretaries of state visit the University of Georgia, but on March 27, former secretaries of state Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher, Madeleine Albright, and Colin Powell, met in Athens, Georgia to have a roundtable discussion on issues facing the country. Classic AV Resources, a division of TSAV was honored to help with the prestigious event, providing 6 handheld SM58’s and 1 wireless SM58 for a feed to a mixer that feed a press box for the cameras. The event was brought to the University of Georgia through the Dean Rusk Law School and their partnership with the Southern Center for International Studies. The event was held to honor the 30-year anniversary of the Law School, which bears the name of the late School of Law faculty member who served as secretary of state for both Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Rusk participated in several of these Report of the Secretaries of State sessions while teaching at the School of Law for nearly 25 years. Darrell Osbourne, head of operations at the Classic AV Resources works closely with the Classic Center on a number of events like this one.
On a cold night in January 2006, the beautifully refurbished Capitol Theatre in downtown Macon, Georgia once again opened its doors to the public. The stunning Capitol Theatre sat dormant for almost 30 years becoming an old memory of years gone by. Once a place of grandeur and pride for the Macon community, the 600-person venue fell into disrepair. Then in 2005 the City of Macon began renovations of the historic venue. Thanks to the efforts of countless volunteers, the theatre now operates as a movie house, and live entertainment venue, equipped with the latest business technologies to support corporate meetings in a professional and innovative manner.
TSAV was contracted to provide acoustical review services including virtual modeling, room shaping and treatment recommendation, and review of transference and mechanical systems related concerns for the historic venue. The Capitol Theatre project quickly became a point of pride for TSAV not only because we have an office in Macon and have employees who are part of the Macon community, but also because TSAV owner Pete Dugas grew up in the Warner Robins, Macon area. Much of the theatre’s interior needed acoustical treatments before the initial installation of the sound system. 15- 2’ X 8’ panel bass traps and several hundred square feet of hi-mid absorbers, and several dozen linear feet of corner round bass traps were required. The new sound system installed by the Capital's volunteer team and with TSAV's support includes a Meyer Loudspeaker System, Midas Mixing Consoles, wireless Shure Microphones, Crestron touchpanel control systems, a Clearone Digital Matrix mixer, and a host of other state of the art technologies.
The result of the renovation is extraordinary, and TSAV’s involvements there in are reflective of TSAV’s long-standing interests in historic preservation and dedication to integrating technologies with minimal impact on visible aesthetics.
The Peach County Courthouse recently called on TSAV’s expertise to help them solve audio issues inside the courtroom. From the outset, the need to improve intelligibility within the courtroom was obvious. The room’s propensity for reverberation indicated the potential for significant obstacles. The space itself coupled with the uniformity of the seating in the audience area created a better environment for sound projection originating from the audience instead of from the bench. The three main issues confronting TSAV in the courtroom were acoustical concerns regarding the room layout, microphone and signal processing areas needing improvement, and loudspeaker-based areas needing improvement. In order to tackle the Peach County project, TSAV took a phased approach to fix the issues. This approach enabled TSAV to address the existing intelligibility problems via focused acoustical treatments and prevented expenses incurred due to modifying electronic systems within the building. The rear wall of the courtroom needed 70% of its surface area covered with absorbent materials. This would ensure less reverberation, and improve the clarity of speech. The wall coverings were fabricated by TSAV’s technicians offsite and hung with precision to ensure the room would have vastly improved acoustics. The microphones and speakers were upgraded to improve speech sound quality, and tested for ideal performance in the newly redesigned courtroom. TSAV is proud to have provided a solution improving the quality and efficiency of proceedings in the Peach County Courthouse.
The Morgan County School System is receiving an upgrade for the New Year. TSAV is currently installing 77” interactive whiteboard systems and 3M projectors with built-in speakers throughout 220 classrooms in the Morgan County School District. Made by SMART Technologies, these whiteboards are interactive, touch-sensitive display units that are connected to a projector, speaker and computer to give each individual classroom an impressive presentation system with full Internet capabilities. Ralph Bennett, Ed.D., who serves as Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning for Morgan County, made the following observations about the project:
“As the Morgan County School System has progressed with the timeline for the installation of and training on the SMART Boards and 3M projectors, it has been fascinating to see some of the changes that are taking place in classrooms."
Morgan County Schools enroll approximately 3300 students over five different campuses. The Morgan County School System has an excellent reputation throughout the state and is committed to continued improvement in the education of our children. Morgan County School System is a past winner of the Georgia Department of Education PaceSetter Award for achieving outstanding results for students with disabilities, and also enjoys the best computer-to-student ratio in the state, with 2 ¼ computers for every student.
The University of Georgia has called on TSAV for help with audiovisual installations on a number of occasions. The most recent project TSAV has completed for the prestigious University is the Stegeman Coliseum Practice Annex. The scope of the project was expansive and included audiovisual installations in the Gymnastics practice arena, Men's and Women's Basketball practice arena and locker rooms. A variety of audiovisual equipment was installed throughout the Annex including Crestron control processors, Mitsubishi DLP Video Projectors, Phillips 42" XGA plasma TVs, XM Commercial Satellite Antenna, Soundtube ceiling speakers, and Middle Atlantic equipment racks. With such a challenging task in front of TSAV, a 2-phase turn-key installation process was implemented to ensure that all work for the project would be completed on time. The first phase of the Stegeman project consisted of equipment orders, onsite cabling, offsite preparation of equipment racks, and the staging of equipment for installation in phase two. The second and final stage for the Stegeman project included all equipment installations; speaker hangs in all practice courts and the gymnastics arena, ceiling speaker installation throughout the Annex, equipment rack delivery, and termination and installation of projection and display systems. The final phase of stage two consisted of testing and final placement of equipment, equalization of systems, and programming of all digital signal processors. TSAV's professional audiovisual control systems will serve the needs of the University's Athletic Association, The University of Georgia's Men's and Women's Basketball and Gymnastics programs now, and for years to come.
TSAV is proud to have designed and implemented a sophisticated video conferencing system for the Pope Center in Washington, GA, bringing exciting new opportunities to the community. The center now can provide face to face video conferencing between the largest meeting room at capacity and up to 8 other sites around the world. When there is a need to accommodate conferencing in smaller break out rooms, the Pope center has a Polycom portable video conferencing cart. In the ballroom, on a professionally lit stage with perfect sound, Representative Barry Fleming said that the teleconferencing technology at The Pope Center was the kind of opportunity the state of Georgia wants to encourage for rural economic development. Mayor Willie E. Burns says the Pope Center is "a transformation- a transformation for the future of Washington." TSAV is proud to help transform the Pope Center into a place of pride and excellence for the community of Washington, Georgia. For more information on this project check out the link below!
The News-Reporter of Wilkes County
Over the years TSAV has done work on many churches and other places of worship. TSAV has had the privilege of working with many houses of worship to improve their audiovisual communications systems over the years. Saint Luke's Presbyterian Church in Dunwoody, Georgia proved to be one of the most challenging projects to date. The 35-year-old chuch realized the needs of it's growing congregation necessitated a complete redesign of the aging sound system installed decades earlier. The age of the beautiful sanctuary complicated the redesign of rigging and cable paths; however, TSAV took a fresh approach and redesigned and installed a new digital system to replace the analog system installed in the 1980s. The system redesign included the installation of Shure microphones, Tannoy ceiling speakers, Crown amplifiers, a Bi-amp digital systems processor, and a Williams sound-assisted listening system. Teaming up with these great products, TSAV was able to engineer an extremely complex project without jeopardizing the sound, physical integrity, or beauty of the sanctuary.
TSAV recently installed a complex audio production system in their beautiful sanctuary as well as closed circuit security cameras in buildings throughout the KMCC campus. The sophisticated audio system TSAV installed in the Sanctuary needed to be unified and capable of multiple operations. In order to meet these needs TSAV installed an elaborate front of house mixer made by Yamaha Electronics. The architecture of the building made producing perfectly balanced sound difficult. TSAV wanted to preserve the beauty and peaceful nature of the sanctuary, making the project complex and challenging. Because of the large size of the Sanctuary and the effects that had on the overall audibility of the human voice in the room, careful sound engineering was essential. TSAV's professional sound design consisted of Whirlwind cables, OAP loudspeakers, Shure Brothers microphones, and Crown amplifiers. As the project neared completion, TSAV called up Wayne Lee, from Lee Sound, of Atlanta to help test and fine-tune this unique project. The final result, according to Joseph Kim, Pastor of KMCC, was "fantastic sound and precise, timely installation."
In late 2007 TSAV received a call for help from Armstrong World Industries. Armstrong is an manufacturer of floors, ceilings, and cabinets, with a factory in Macon, Georgia, and over 13,000 employees worldwide. When Armstrong contacted TSAV they were having serious issues with employee communication because of the size of the corporation. After consideration and careful planning TSAV came up with a simple, yet effective solution for Armstrong Industries. TSAV developed a cohesive 3-room communication and presentation system, equipped with SMART Technologies' SMART Boards, Sanyo Projectors, and built-in ceiling speakers. TSAV's redesign of the lab space, conference room, and training facility gives Armstrong Industries better presentation capabilities, and the SMART Board facilitates a more consistent training program for their employees. As with every TSAV project, two-hour training sessions were held to teach staff operations of the SMART system software and hardware. TSAV's simple approach solved Armstrong Industry's employee communication problem, while keeping the expense of the project low.
TSAV continues its twelve-year relationship with the ACC School District this fall, implementing our “Casscade” District Solution for IP-based television distribution. In an effort to move away from coax-based TV distribution within each school, TSAV has worked with ACC’s Technologies Services Department to provide the necessary network infrastructure that would allow for district-wide multicast streaming of cable TV and centralized media content. With this innovative solution, TSAV helped the district save nearly $100,000.00 on every new school construction project through elimination of antiquated distribution technologies and convergence. Further, the solution eliminates the need for classroom CATV tuners through the network media portal interface. Call TSAV for more information!
The Wesleyan School in Norcross Georgia has been an established TSAV client for some time. Numerous systems on campus have been designed and installed by TSAV, including the Chapel audiovisual system, Natatorium audio system, Theatre audiovisual system, Stadium audio system, and Gymnastics Arena audio system.
To make the Arts Lab at Wesleyan superb, TSAV teamed up with some of the biggest names in the audiovisual field, including Digidesign, Shure Brothers microphones, and SMART Technologies SMART Boards to create an unprecedented multi-media lab space for the school. Wesleyan’s creative and administrative teams put a great deal of faith in Pete Dugas' vision for the space, allowing him to personally oversee the design and build a lab that enables students to utilize the same products and technologies the professionals use. The system that TSAV designed feeds the microphones from the Choral and Band rooms alongside the signals from “isolation booths” and rehearsal rooms into a series of mini recording studios. The students have the ability to record live rehearsals, or “overdubs,” making records with techniques the pros use. Furthermore, the “mini-studios,” one of which is configured for use by the instructor via his or her Smartboard, allows for the production of movies and multimedia presentations, instruction of music theory and performance, composition, and even screenwriting.
TSAV completes integration of over 1000 SMART classroom installations for the Athens-Clarke County School District! Following a short preparation and mobilization period, TSAV's in-house integration team has proven itself in yet another facet of complex project management. With nearly a dozen "standard" variations of system types due to specific site conditions and over 50 completely customized applications, specialization and standardization teams worked side by side to maintain a rigorous pace and met the district's aggressive schedule for the start of Fall' 07 classes. Special thanks to our partners at SMART Technologies, Epson, Sanyo LCD, and Chief Manufacturing for all of your support. Look for further aggressive moves towards embracing instructional technologies by the ACC School District as it positions itself as a forward-thinking leader in education.
TSAV installs live streaming and web-based video on demand system for Greene County Georgia’s Commissioners. Integrating Casscade’s video server system with production video systems, Crestron control systems, and Biamp Audio signal processors, TSAV has successfully automated the county’s capability for recording and unlimited worldwide distribution of Greene County Georgia’s Commission & Zoning and Planning meetings. Greensboro, the county seat is located75 miles east of Atlanta, 70 miles west of Augusta and 60 miles north of Macon. Greene County offers today's businesses the economic resources they need to prosper. Their testament to success is the diverse group of industries, including two international companies that are already thriving in our community.
Security Bank Corporation is a growing multi-bank holding company that has different offices and branches spanning the state of Georgia. As Security Bank grew they soon realized that the expansion within their business was causing strain on how business was being done. TSAV came to the rescue with an innovative solution for some of their "growing pains." TSAV recommended integration of video conferencing systems as a solution related to communications and travel related issues. These systems allowed for loan committee review, management meetings, and even human resource interviews on a statewide basis while reducing or even eliminating some of the associated costs.
The new video conferencing helped Security Bank better communicate and organize their statewide branches. TSAV's careful design and innovative approach helped to reduce costs and in the end allowed the Security Bank Corporation to focus on other issues within their growing business.
TSAV is dedicated to helping their clients build a better business through innovative solutions.
As construction began on their new Sanctuary, TSAV had many different aspects to consider before beginning the actual design and installation of the sound system for St. Matthews. One of the biggest obstacles to overcome with the design and installation involved integration of technology with the architecture of the Sanctuary itself. Since the project installation was being done in such a traditional space, TSAV took great care in hiding the speakers and other components in a way that would not take away from the beauty of the church or be distracting to the congregation. Through the use of linear array loudspeaker systems, analog and digital sound processing equipment, and multiple user interfaces, TSAV was able to provide for the needs of the facility with minimal impact to the architectural design.
The Athens Regional Medical Center is one of North Georgia’s leading hospitals focusing its attention in recent years on special treatment programs and patient satisfaction. In 2003 the ARMC was presented the “Large Hospital Quality and Patient Safety Award” and is leading the way in the region for providing support spaces for meetings and educational presentations.
TSAV was excited to be included in the new auditorium project with ARMC’s Medical Services Building development. TSAV designed and installed all of the audio-visual components in the auditorium to make a top-notch medical learning and public meeting space for Northeast Georgia’s medical educators & community support programs. The new auditorium is meant to be a place of learning and discussion for the medical community. TSAV’s design centered on the vision of providing state of the art educational tools, large format presentation systems, touchpanel controllers, broadcast & press feeds, and even integration of parallel slide projectors allowing for large format comparative display.
Technical Services Audio Visual
775 Barber Street
Athens, GA 30601
voice 706.613.8759 • fax 706.613.5020