Mission:

Our goal is to seek out the best recommendations for control systems used by the presenter in Edgerton Hall in order to operate efficiently audio, lighting, communications and multimedia equipment.

Design Constraints and Assumptions:

1. We assume that the priority is given to the local audience above the remote audience.

2. We assume that there will not be any major structural rennovations to Edgerton Hall.

3. We assume that there will be a fund about $70000 each group.

4. We may assume that the cost of maintenance should be less than $5000 annually.

5. We are limited to the current technology available unless the project is placed on hold.

6. The system must be upgradable as new technology becomes available.

7. We assume that data regarding proper light and audio levels will be provided by the group representing the local audience. We assume that these constraints provided by the local audience can be honored by all groups.

8. We assume all cameras will operate in ambient lighting conditions.

9. Edgerton Hall is used mostly for lectures and seminars and occasionally by student groups. Therefore the design focus will be for lectures and seminars with versatility built in.

10. We are assuming that the installers and final designers of any control system will have the necessary knowledge about the lighting and audio and communication setup.

11. We assume Edgerton Hall will continue to have a supporting staff for most lectures and seminars.

12. The controls must not be too complex to understand.

Design Guidelines:

Lights

1. We understand that a lecturer does not necessarily want to be controlling the lights while presenting his information. Therefore the primary control of lights should be handled by a computer. Secondary control should be done by the production staff if available. If the production staff is unavailable, then the lecturer may modify the lights at his choosing.

2. The production staff should be informed of the lighting conditions though sensors and control monitoring.

3. A wide range of lighting should be available to meet the requirements of diversity in style and tastes as well as to meet the needs for different forms of presentation.

Sound

1. The lecturer should have a mute button on his microphone to avoid confusion when he is speaking but does not wish to be amplified. An example of this is when a lecturer is answering questions at the beginning or end of class during setup time.

2. Questions from the audience should be reinforced for both the lecturer and the other members of the audience. However care must be taken to prevent disruptions in the presentation.

Projection devices:

1. The lecturer should be able to operate the projection devices without giving any further warning or instructions to the supporting staff, though this is not advised last minute ideas should be allowed.

The control mechanism:

1. The lecturer should have a devise just large enough for him to control as many things in the lecture hall as needed without confusion.

2. The controller should be handy enough for the lecturer to carry around if desired.

3. If possible, the controller should include a wireless microphone in it. This will enable the performer to give his performance without having to carry a microphone as well.

4. An override should exist should the lecturer wish to relinquish command of the hall to an assistant or graduate student.

5. The controls should be able to include all the pertinent information about the things that are going to be controlled not necessarily at the same time.

The podium:

1. The podium should contain the control mechanism or have a place for it to be attached.

2. The podium should be movable to preserve the versatility of the room and avoid upstaging the lecturer if he wishes to have someone assist him by controlling the hall.

Other support and controls:

1. The lecturer should not be expected to lecture without the proper tools. Low level support such as making sure the microphone batteries are fresh, and a ready supply of teaching aids such as chalk, erasers, etc. are available. will enable the lecture to proceed smoothly.

Options being considered:

Lights

1. We recommend that data be collected to determine the proper light levels for different forms of presentation such as standard lecturing with a blackboard, overhead projection, 35 mm. slides and video. This should be done from the audience prospective.

2. We recommend that more investigation be done concerning the addition of ambient lighting spotlights in the back of Edgerton hall. In particular having the spotlights track the lecturer to provide enough light for the both the local and remote audience during a low light presentation such as a slide show. Again it is emphasized that ambient lighting conditions will be retained.

3. We recommend that the controls are preprogrammed with the proper light levels based on the data collected by the audience group. Therefore if a lecture presses a key to start a VCR presentation, the lights automatically adjust for that form of presentation.

4. We recommend that the production staff have the ability to override the preset conditions based on their judgment of what the LOCAL audience needs. Here the constraint against studio lighting is upheld.

Other support and controls:

1. We recommend that the space located next to the blackboard be utilized as a storage cabinet for chalk, erasers, batteries and so forth. The lecturer should have access to this cabinet.

2. This cabinet should be monitored frequently to make sure it is properly stocked. Questions concerning security also remain.

The control mechanism:

1. LED Push Button Panel

This technology can use a panel of touch buttons that would be connected to the control box via a wired connection. This has the advantage of being robust, and familiar, but does not provide a large amount of feedback for the lecturer. A large panel of buttons also has the draw back of being difficult to understand.

2. Programmable Touch Screen

This is the most expensive option being considered, however it is also the most versatile and upgradable technology we have available. If programmed properly it would present information to the lecturer in an intuitively obvious manner and thus would be the most user friendly option available. These screens are capable of presenting color displays and can show real-time video on the control screen at the same time it is being projected to the class. It is even possible to utilize the screen as a monitor for a Sun Sparc that would allow computer presentations to made easier. These panels can either be hard wired into a surface or attached to it by a connector. This allow flexibility or increase security. The screen can be tilted to allow for different viewing angles and to reduce the impact of laying something on top of the screen. Touch Screen Technology has come a long way in terms of eliminating unwanted effects such at the accidental starting of a function. These screens are flexible in the display of the commands to allow for various kinds of shapes and colors. This will help the lecturer to distinguish the commands easily.

3. Remote Control

A third option we have considered is a remote control that combines a LCD display with a series of hard buttons, this control would work in principle as an automated teller machine. It offers a bit more feed back than a push button panel and can work well with a touch screen either in a podium or in the remote broadcasting director's booth. The disadvantage for this is changes made by the touch screen are not updated on the Remote. It is easier to program custom functions on a remote than on a panel of buttons. It is fairly user friendly, but not as much as a touch screen and it is handy if the lecture does not wish to be confined to a podium.

Our decision matrix

Comparison Buttons Screen Remote Importance

Robustness 10 7 7 9

Size 4 9 9 7

Image 4 10 8 3

Sensitivity 6 7 7 5

User-friendly 6 10 7 9

Portability 6 6 9 8

Initial Cost 8 6 8 8

Operational

Cost 7 6 6 9

Replacement 6 3 8 8

Upgradablity 3 10 7 7

Integration with

production staff 6 9 6 7

Feedback 3 10 6 10

TOTAL 900

Robustness

We consider this from the fact that which mechanism are more agile to pressure, dust, heat, etc. That's why we give 10 for push button panel because the buttons are more robust to dust , heat, pressure, etc. However, after we found that touch screen and the remote are more robust than we thought. So we give both of the 7. Since we are proposing to the use of touch screen and remote, this fact is really significant to our proposal.

Size

The size numbers were assigned base on how much space each option would require and how this would effect overall performance. The push button panel is ranked low because in order to have all the possible controls, the panel would have to be very large and contain many buttons. This would be very difficult to use. The remote is by far the smallest, and because we are dealing with LCD type remote it does not suffer from being too small or being to large to carry around. The Touch Screens come in various sizes. It is recommend to purchase the large color screen that will support computer signals. This would give the programmer space to place the controls without cluttering the screen and without the screen being to large.

Image

We are considering this from what people impression about this s mechanism. That's why we give the touch screen 10 because it is the latest and design. However, the image does not contribute much to our consideration of the proposal.That's why we give it 3 the importance.

Sensitivity

We consider the matter from the fact that how sensitive the buttons are to pressure in order for the system to execute new commands. We thought before that touch screen would be too sensitive. However, after out field trip to Crimson Tech, we found that the touch screen is can be designed not to be highly sensitive to reduce but not completely eliminate accidental failure modes. That's why we give less than 10 for the sensitivity of a touch screen. The remote and push button panels are typically sensitive to pressure with more force required for some button panels.

User-friendly

We consider this to be important in our proposal because we really want the performer to be able to use the control mechanisms easily. After going, to Crimson Tech, we found that the touch screen is very user friendly to a performer because the commands diagrams with various kind of shapes and colors that enhance the ability of the performer to be better. While a large panel of buttons can be confusing. The ATM approach is acceptable as long as commands are limited in number otherwise it will also become confusing. There is also no graphical capability or podium video included with buttons or a remote.

Portability

We want the performer to have an opportunity to execute any commands from wherever he or she stands.It is also important in our proposal because this can help the performer to control devices in the Edgerton Hall efficiently. We found that the remote is handy to carry around. While the button panels are not. The touch screen would also normally remained fixed, but it is possible to have more than one connector for the panel available in case it was known that the lecture wanted an assistant to control the hall.

Initial Cost

We found that the initial costs for push button and remote are about the same ranging from $2,500 to $4,000. They are not as expensive as the touch screen which can cost as much as $10,000 plus the cost of programming.

Operational Cost and Replacement

Over time it takes money to keep a system operational. For the remote it would be costly to keep purchasing batteries. The touch screen will draw more power than a set of buttons. We hypothesis that these costs will be about the same. With replacement costs, it would be much cheaper to replace a bad remote or a whole panel of buttons than the touch screen because of the initial costs of the system. While we would hope that replacement is unnecessary, accidents do happen and should be considered.

Upgradablity

We want our system to be easy to upgrade because we know in the future there are some new apparati that have to be coordinate with the control system in the Edgerton Hall. We think the touch screen is suitable for this comparison.

Ability to work with the production staff

We also think this matter is important because we want our control system can coordinate efficiently with the camera devices. We think that the touch screen is suitable for this task because of its excellent feedback!

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