Surrey council approved a city staff recommendation Monday, May 1 to spend more than $1.2 million on a “multimedia refresh project” for council chambers and two community rooms at city hall.
“It’s to ensure our sound is crisp and you can all hear it and I know we’ve had a number of people say they can’t hear us so this should improve that,” Mayor Brenda Locke said.
A report by Rob Costanzo, Surrey’s general manager of corporate services, to council indicated that “end-of-life” audio-visual equipment needs to be replaced. The work will be done during council’s summer break between Aug. 7 and Sept. 8. Council awarded a $1,229,039.96 contract to AVI-SPL with a spending limit set at $1,351,943.96.
The three rooms are “important meeting spaces” used for council meetings, theatre productions and community meetings.
“All three meeting spaces are due for technology replacement with most of the audiovisual equipment being past end-of-life, with extended warranties exhausted for several years,” Costanzo reported. “Equipment and technology issues in these three meeting spaces have become increasingly challenging to resolve.”
He noted a technology “refresh” was delayed by the pandemic and related budget constraints and equipment supply chain issues. “This refresh project will be replacing all aged equipment with newer more robust and reliable equipment, along with some infrastructure changes needed to support modern audio-visual system requirements.”
Equipment and services included in work are two 4K Laser Projectors, two 86-inch televisions, eight microphones, 19 cameras, audio and video control processors, and “networking panels and wiring to support new capabilities.”
tom.zytaruk@surreynowleader.com
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