Courtrooms / Government Chambers

Products

Courtrooms / Government Chambers

Courtroom

Overview

Within the halls of justice or behind the closed doors of a courtroom, control and order must be maintained. In these multi-source environments creating the proper mix of audio can be challenging. Symetrix automixers act like a dedicated sound person, simultaneously monitoring many channels, determining priority levels, and making necessary changes within milliseconds. Non-technical personnel can interface with the system using easy-to-operate end user controls. For any courtroom or government chamber, large and small, Symetrix has a solution.

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Jupiter App Note: Courtrooms / Government Chambers

Spotlight Installation

Federal Courthouse - Birmingham, AL, USA

Products: Symetrix Jupiter 8, ARC-SWK

Headquartered just outside the bustle of Birmingham in Hueytown, Alabama, Data Plus Communications LLC lives up to its name, offering a range of integration and installation services for private, commercial, and government establishments that includes: closed-circuit remote viewing & recording, burglary alarm systems, controlled-access systems, video projection, computer setup, IT networking, web hosting, IP-integrated phone systems, video conferencing, and sound reinforcement, among other things. To avoid spreading its technicians thin, Data Plus Communications turns to technologies that leverage the power of specialization with forward-thinking interfaces that don't require specialized workshops to understand. The use of Symetrix' new Jupiter series of "zero-learning curve" audio signal processors, which borrow the "apps" paradigm from Smartphones to make setup tremendously simple, is an excellent case in point. Data Plus Communications recently installed a Jupiter 8 signal processor in a federal courthouse, and word of mouth among the judges in the area has turned that one installation into an advertisement that won the company a number similar jobs using the Jupiter 8.

"One of the courthouses in the area originally had one of the big-name open-architecture signal processors in place, and they called us in to make it simpler and more reliable for them," explained Jonathan Curelar, owner, Data Plus. "It is very hard to grasp that interface from the integrators viewpoint, and the system always seemed overly complicated and mysterious to the judge. As a result, I was intrigued when Symetrix announced the release of the Jupiter series, which promised to be powerful, but tremendously simple to program, install, and use."

Curelar presented the Jupiter 8 to the judge, who was impressed with its simplicity and easy-to-justify price tag. "We used the 'Gain Sharing #1' app from the Symetrix library in the Jupiter 8," said Curelar. "It was the perfect template, and it was simple and intuitive to customize to the specific needs of the courtroom. In contrast to the old system, when I pulled the Jupiter software up, I immediately understood what I was looking at and how I should proceed to make changes."

He continued, "Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the Jupiter series is that it works seamlessly with the Symetrix ARC wall panels. It's wonderful. I was able to give the judge a few buttons that I had preprogrammed to perform exactly - and only - those tasks he required." Those tasks are certainly unique to a courtroom. With one button on the ARC-SWK control panel, the judge sends white noise to all the courtroom speakers except the one that sits by the court reporter. That speaker gets a feed from the boundary microphone on the judge's bench. That way, the judge can call a "side conference" and discuss matters privately with the lawyers and only the court reporter can hear their conversation. Other functions include a "mute all" and microphone gain on the witness stand.

"It was a nice job, and I knew the judge was very pleased," said Curelar. "But that's as far I expected it to go. A few months went by and we received a call from another judge in another courthouse. It turns out he had seen the first judge's system and wanted to retrofit his courtroom with a Jupiter 8 and ARC controller as well. That really got us in the door, which is not a simple thing with government work." Data Plus Communications has since installed twelve similar systems and is working on a design for an interrogation room that also uses Symetrix Jupiter and ARC technology.