INTRODUCTION

Visual Sound was solicited by MCM Consulting in aiding with designing a building-wide Audio Visual system for a new, state of the art Emergency Operation/911 Center for Susquehanna County, PA in order to effectively coordinate and direct all emergency efforts.

THE CHALLENGE

Susquehanna County originally had a much smaller facility that was outfitted with a conference room and offices with cable television. This new 45,000 square foot facility was designed with a larger open space to accommodate various county, state, and federal officials along with a new 911 call center, multipurpose space, conference rooms and offices. The requirements included an Audio Visual system that could accommodate day-to-day operations and share information throughout the building depending on the emergency being handled by the county operations.

THE SOLUTION

Visual Sound provided a solution to design, fabricate, and install a building-wide video and audio video over IP solution for all spaces, video wall within the Main EOC, multiple monitors around the 911 call center, and monitors in conference rooms and offices.  All spaces were designed to accept a video feed from the Main EOC if needed to coordinate information and service any ongoing emergency that the county would support.

THE TECHNOLOGY

• Main EOC Center – Equipped with one 3 high by 6 wide, 55” display video wall solution which has windowing processing to support one (1) or up to eight (8) total video windows across the wall.  A supplemental 75” display is wall mounted at the back of the room for the main EOC operator.  Various laptop docking stations with inputs into the system are provided throughout, along with dedicated PCs that host day to operational information such as weather, news, and call logs.  Ceiling microphones and loudspeakers are installed for phone conferencing applications and a touch panel interface with controls for the room video, audio and building wide routing for emergency operations.
• 911 Call Center – Equipped with one (1) 65” display and seven (7) 75” displays mounted around the room.  These displays are setup with the daily operational data for the 911 call center operators.  Additionally, this space is equipped with computer inputs and a touch panel interface for video routing controls.
• Multipurpose Room – Equipped with two (2) projections systems, computer interfacing, overflow video and audio from the main EOC and a touch panel interface for video routing controls.
• Conference Rooms – Each equipped with a wall mounted 65” display, local computer inputs for presentations and overflow video and audio from the main EOC. 
• Offices – Each equipped with a wall mounted 65” display, local computer inputs for presentations and overflow video and audio from the main EOC. 
• Server Room – Equipped with all the headend equipment, an audio server, video over IP system, control system processing, networking, and audio amplification.

RESULTS

This new facility wide Audio Visual system at the Susquehanna County Emergency Operations/911 Center has given the emergency response team the opportunity to stage the facility for all routine emergency management and coordination efforts needed to navigate situations where local, state, and federal agencies need to be involved.