Situation

Lee County Schools had outgrown its headquarters facility in Fort Myers, Florida. More space and centralization were needed, as was an upgrade of its A/V and broadcast capabilities. The challenge was designing a system that would be flexible, reliable and meet advanced technology needs on a limited budget. A 370,000 sq. ft. mall renovation was undertaken to house new administrative offices, a School Board public meeting room, a TV studio and distance learning facility, a press room, and a master control room.

Solution

District management called Professional Communications Systems (PCS) for guidance in design and equipment selection. PCS designed a hybrid A/V / Broadcast system with forward compatibility to digital technology.

Centerpiece of the project is the Board meeting room equipped with an integrated system using touch screen panels and voting software, robotic cameras and camera control - cutting-edge technology similar to that used in government facilities for parliamentary applications. Ceiling projectors are high resolution XGA and provide super high brightness to projection screen images shown on two large 200" diagonal fixed screens.

The control room has a touch-panel configured, centralized master control system interfaced with the School Board meeting room and TV studio. There, the staff has total control of routing, projectors and the production switcher system.

Source monitoring is provided via multiplexed video displays on 46" Sharp LCD monitors, chosen because the project called for professional applications, with long-term reliability and high performance due to extensive usage.

Production staff can now also implement IPTV scenarios on its network infrastructure, streaming video live over the internet and creating "video on demand" applications, when required.

Results

Overall functionality of the integrated systems has far exceeded the district's expectations. A very aggressive 4-month timeline from original design to installation was met. When a digital transition can be implemented, TV production can be adapted to operate with SDI or DTV. The system is expandable and can be easily upgraded. The integration makes the Lee County School District among the most advanced technologically in the state of Florida for audiovisual and broadcast capabilities, while being exemplary in value maximization.