Gisborne District Council is a unitary authority, New Zealand’s first unitary authority, created as part of a major nationwide reform of local government in 1989. And is both the district and regional council for the Gisborne district – Tairawhiti, caring for a community of 37,000+ people.
On the back of a successful installation for Wellington City Council, TenFour were approached by Gisborne District Council to design and install a full audio visual solution for their new main council building. Spaces included the Council Chambers and adjoining meeting and breakout rooms.
An essential need for these spaces was flexibility. TenFour proposed an expandable technology solution that gave Council the ability to both present and be heard within meetings, while also incorporating other participants via video and audio conferencing.
As part of the Council’s brief, we installed a dual projection system, full in room audio and twenty wireless Sennheiser conferencing microphone system to integrate with the council’s requirement for Zoom video and audio conferencing. The Zoom solution was also the chosen medium to capture, record and stream meetings live.
Dual Panasonic PTZ cameras were installed either side of the chambers to provide full visibility of the chamber during Zoom meetings and recordings. These cameras are fully operated and can be zoomed in to preset selections for different presenters or presenter positions. The Chamber is equipped with a fully automated Crestron control system via a wireless iPad and a fixed wall mounted touch solution that simplifies all operations. Lights and blinds are automated to give the room the best setup for the cameras when in a call. Two chairman microphones are incorporated in the system to allow control of the Councillors coming in and out of the meetings. The Sennheiser system allows for different modes of conferencing and the Council have chosen to allow up to five people live at a time. Each mic lights up red to show they are live and able to speak. The secretary has full control of the mic system using the iPad app.
The iPad in the chamber also runs the zoom application providing full touch control and operation of the conference calls, the streaming content and the recordings from anywhere in the room. There are two adjoining rooms that are also fully equipped with Crestron Mercury UC1 table top conference units running the Zoom Application allowing for seamless video and audio calls. The Mercury pulls through all the meeting information and allows simple one touch joining of these meetings, each room is equipped with extension mics to capture all participants as these are large 10+ Person spaces.
