Smith, Fause & McDonald, Inc.

City of Los Angeles City Hall , Council Chamber, Los Angeles, California

Architect: Seigel Diamond Architects, Los Angeles, California

SFMI's scope of services: 

• Video Systems
• Robotic Camera Systems
• Editing Facility
• Replay Facility/
• Air Release Switching Facilities
• Graphics Facility
• Proposal Procurement

SFMI was involved from Concept Development and Original Budget Provision through Design Documents and Commissioning.

Design of Live Television Coverage for a 350 seat historic City Council Chamber.  SFMI's efforts have enabled ten city cable franchisees to broadcast live and taped regular City Council meetings and other public events over City Cable TV Networks.  To preserve the historic interior of the chamber, as well as maintain a comfortable environment for the Council members, SFMI designed the system to produce broadcast quality pictures using only the lighting of the existing historic sconces.  To minimize distraction to the public and impact on the space, the system is designed so that the six robotic cameras are operated by remote control from a separate control room located blocks from City Hall. 

To date, this coverage is the largest municipal legislative proceedings system in operation in the United States and has been used as the functional model for the California State Legislature (California Channel) Systems. SFMI also provided financial feasibility study and development of technical concept for the latter system.

The designed Council Press Conference Room provides support facilities for the print and broadcast press, including broadcast lighting, audio pool feeds, video pool feeds, connections to microwave truck parking locations, voice telephones, FAX, and modem line connections.

A related production facility, designed to support LA City Hall television operations, is described on our video production facility experience page