“Together these components are key in achieving high levels of speech intelligibility, providing enough gain to make up the acoustical losses in a courtroom without the effects of feed- back and recirculated audio. The acoustic and mechanical design per- formance plays a key role in the over- all audio system’s end to end performance.” Lewis says a voice lift system com- pensates for the courtroom's acoustic loss, which will always occur and is greater in larger courtrooms. The ob- ject of the audio system design, he says, is to create the effect that any- one in the courtroom, including the public gallery, will hear speakers in the proceedings as though they were approximately one meter away from the person talking. “Poor acoustical design will provide a space that is totally reliant on the voice enhancement systems,” he said. “A courtroom that provides an acoustical performance allowing everyone to hear easily without elec- tronic voice enhancement introduces different technical design issues for the recording, teleconferencing, video conferencing, video remand and re- mote testimony electronic systems.” Lewis says there is also a delicate balance between the overall acousti- cal end-to-end performance and the electronic voice enhancement system to ensure high speech intelligibility for both participants and those con- nected remotely to the courtroom. Sight N Sound carefully considers the court recording system, which records the various participants on dif- ferent tracks to provide track separa- tion playback for the court reporter in the transcription process. Errors in de- sign can allow for “inaudibles” on the playback, preventing full and accurate transcriptions. Designs must also take into ac- count that courtrooms of varying sizes may be connected to remote sites. Lewis says it is essential that regard- less of size, the audio performance of each courtroom is the same. “Each courtroom also provides electronic evidence presentation plug- in points at every counsel desk. This connection point allows both legacy VGA/audio and latest digital video sig- nals to be connected and presented to the court.” In addition to the critical audio per- formance requirement, Sight N Sound designs and builds all the other sub- systems related to the total audio-vi- sual courthouse requirements. Touch-panel technology controls these systems, which must be user friendly, reliable and mistake proof. Lewis says Sight N Sound develops and creates all these control programs in-house. “One of the most important mis- sion critical systems in a courtroom is the voice pick up system which is used for the audio recording, tele- conferencing, video conferencing and voice enhancement.” “For the four new courthouse proj- ects, we designed and built special mobile electronic multi-purpose evi- dence carts that provide electronic ev- idence annotation, printing and playback of different media formats.” For the Thunder Bay project, Sight N Sound designed a complex and unique codec farm system to meet the remote region's needs, enabling courtrooms and meeting rooms to cost-effectively share and connect via video conferencing. Lewis says working on a new court- house with tight delivery schedules means that on-site delivery and imple- mentation of the audio visual systems has to be carefully thought out to meet the “go-live” dates. “Sight N Sound designs all the cable systems that support the audio visual systems so they can be in- stalled by the electrical contractor. The equipment racks - of which there is one per courtroom - are built and pre- tested at our location and once the courthouse building construction is close to completion, we ship them to site.” After an audio visual installation is completed Sight N Sound begins its detailed commissioning phase which involves end-to-end system perform- ance. “At project completion, life for P3 projects (the courthouses) lives on for us as we continue to be part of the fa- cility management team providing on- going maintenance and technical support. We also provide a complete detailed testing once per year includ- ing a full commissioning report to the same level of detail as the original re- port at time of project's substantial completion.” Besides its extensive courthouse work, Sight n Sound has extensive ex- perience with voice enhancement in well-designed acoustic spaces, in- cluding the challenging New York As- sembly Chamber in New York. The company is working now on the Emer- gency Operations Facility in Toronto which will be used for the Pan Am Games in 2015. The Canadian Design and Construction Report — Fall 2014 – 37