[Frameworks] new architecture/buildings/rooms wired with cameras and mics

[Ryder White]

Hi Shelly,

A few years ago, when I was still in university, our contemporary arts
department moved to a new purpose-built facility complete with a lot of the
kind of integrated infrastructure I think you're talking about. Instead of
having a lot of independent systems, every lecture hall and seminar room
had all the media playback and recording devices (as well as the lights,
screens, blinds, etc) controlled by the same console that was linked back
to a central server. It made for a much nicer space in that there weren't
wires and cables and carts everywhere, but it was still fraught with
difficulty. One of the main problems was that the configuration of each
space was only MOSTLY the same...they all differed somewhat. Besides that,
the control interface itself was not particularly intuitive.

To my mind, it is a nice thing to do but only if it can be done in a very
particular way. For one thing, ensure consistency throughout your systems,
because learning one new way of using a space is hard enough. Secondly,
demo your interface options extensively and always ask yourself "Is this
something that the least technologically literate person in our
organization could use?" It's pretty awful when class/session/presentation
time gets cut down because you can't figure out how to differentiate the
projector controls from the lighting ones.

Hope that helps. I only have experience with the one setup, though, so I'd
like to hear if anyone knows of more positive implementations.

Best,

RW


On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 1:10 PM, Shelly Silver <silvernyc at earthlink.net>wrote:

> dear all:
> does anyone have experience, good or bad, with rooms pre-built with
> wiring, cameras, mics.  not for surveillance but for filming lectures, etc.
> im involved in the pre-planning of a building and i want to collect
> experiences.
>
> thanks!
> shelly
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