Fayetteville City Council members watch a presentation during a meeting inside City Hall room 219 on December 4, 2012.
File photo
Five scheduled meetings will move to temporary alternate locations in March while crews work to complete a serious of technology upgrades inside Fayetteville City Hall.
The work is part of a project to replace or upgrade the audio-visual and broadcast systems inside public meeting spaces throughout City Hall, including rooms 219 (City Council chambers) and 326.
Susan Norton, city communications director, said the current systems are inconsistent from room to room, utilize outmoded equipment, are not user friendly, and don’t provide the flexibility needed to address the demands of the city’s multimedia presentation needs.
Part of the work includes replacing the projectors and screens inside each room with flatscreen televisions placed in different areas so audience members can more easily view agenda materials. Other audience-related improvements include the addition of a new presentation system that will allow citizens a more convenient way to present information during meetings.
Smaller display screens will be installed in front of each City Council members’ seats so that aldermen can more easily review presentation information and accompanying documents for each agenda item. Council member seating areas will also be upgraded to be ADA-compliant.
Upgrades to the production and telecast systems inside City Hall and at the city’s Television Center are fairly extensive. Currently, the production facilities are a hybrid of analog and digital systems in both high definition and standard definition quality. The new system will migrate those signals to a pure digital environment to improve audio and video quality of meetings that are recorded and broadcast to the public.
The work at City Hall is estimated at $186,000. Upgrades to the Television Center are expected to cost about $219,000. Both projects were awarded to The Field Shop, Inc. of Little Rock after a bidding process last year. Aldermen unanimously approved the contract at the Dec. 15 City Council meeting.
Future improvements will include upgrades in room 111, as well as new carpeting, lighting, and seating inside some rooms.
The work will affect two City Council meetings, two Planning Commission meetings, and one meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory board. Temporary locations for those meetings are:
Ray Adams Leadership Center – School Board Room
1000 W Bulldog Avenue (formerly Stone Street)
March 1 – City Council Meeting
March 7 – Parks and Recreation Advisory Board
Washington County Courthouse – Quorum Courtroom
280 N College Avenue
March 14 – Planning Commission Meeting
March 15 – City Council Meeting
March 28 – Planning Commission Meeting
