Project Description
Fresno City Hall is a prominent government building located in downtown Fresno, California. It serves as the headquarters for the City of Fresno's municipal government and houses the offices of the mayor, city council, and various city departments.
The building features a blend of modern and traditional architectural styles, reflecting Fresno's growth and development. It is part of the broader Civic Center area, which includes other government buildings and facilities.
City Hall is not only a center of government activity but also an important landmark in the community, often hosting public meetings, events, and various civic activities. Additionally, it is open to the public for services related to city governance, such as permits, licenses, and other administrative functions. Fresno County Schools often host busloads of students to tour the facility and experience local government.
Solutions by Design was hired to design and produce 4 primary display systems. One, a dual interactive video wall system. Secondly, 8 ancillary free-standing vertical kiosks, a large LED Video Wall for the Council Chamber and lastly a series of interactive wall mount kiosks for guests to register and schedule chamber appearances.
Dual Interactive Video Wall Systems
The 3rd floor of City Hall provides access to the Council Chamber from a large hallway with a 60’ arched wall. Opposite the arched wall is a handrail creating a balcony and a beautiful view of entry to the building. This was to be the location of our dual, side-by-side video wall systems. The challenge presented was how to manipulate the space to accommodate large groups of visitors, primarily school children that would be visiting the Hall by the busload. The design called for a long casework system to frame the 2 side-by-side video walls and also provide display cases for misc artifacts depicting the city’s rich history. We decided to split the display into 2 separate video walls to accommodate the maximum number of guests…four individuals per video wall.
Light Bulb signage spelling “FRESNO “vertically and header signage were designed to add more flash to the wall. The casework was designed with a silver and gray laminate and a Corian countertop for durability. We decided to design a lower sill level, lower that what we typically do, to provide access to younger guests as well as to provide maximum exposure given the 10’ ceiling.
User Interface
We wanted to include a lot of motion to the 2 video walls to call immediate attention to the display. We also wanted a design that reflected the rich and diverse culture of the Central Valley. We decided to create floating icons that streamed vertically with a mural-like illustration of geographical elements depicting the Valley. Each icon represented a unique feature of the Valley and beyond. Grapes, peaches and almond icons were illustrated for 3 of the 20 plus varied icons. A waterfall for Yosemite, giant Sequoias for the nearby Sequoia National Forest. We also illustrated skiers, campers, fisherman and various other icons that represent the vast outdoor activities that the Valley offers. And of course, the Fresno State Bulldog icon for the proud tradition of the Fresno State Bulldogs. Historical, iconic features of the Valley were also included such as the historical water tower, Tower Theater, etc.
Interspersed within the floating icons we placed active links that dissolves the screensaver and provides access to a digital menu or menus depending upon guest activation of the 4 menu system controllers. The controller is a manageable menu system that allows the user to navigate his or her way throughout a variety of content including messages including interviews with the mayor, police chief, and council members, to name a few. There is much more content including a historical perspective of the Valley, maps, legends and testimonials from community members. Interviews were shot on location and in our studio. In post-production dynamic backgrounds were added.
We also included a variety of cultural content telling the stories of several of the diverse cultures that exist in the Valley.
Standalone Vertical Kiosks
Due to the tight space allocation and demand to accommodate as many individuals as possible we decided to design a series of free standing vertical kiosks with back to back digital touch displays. Each is supported by 2 chrome poles, floor to ceiling. The poles acted as conduit for cat6 and power.
Kiosk User Interface
We wanted to create a similar experience to that of the large Video Walls but for single users. We retrofitted the concept designed for the Video Walls to fit on each of the 8 - 65” vertical touch displays.
Each of the 8 Kiosks features a different category of information.
Content Development
We decided that we would segment the content into 8 categories…one category per kiosk. The research was fairly straightforward. Historical facts and notable individuals were researched at the Fresno main library. Demographics and economic data was readily available from the City. Entertainment and other categories were compiled from online research. We also included a timeline video dating back to the original inhabitants of Fresno through modern day illustrating how the community grew to become the 5th largest city in California.
Cabling
Our team ran 32 cables from the IDF which is located 200’ from the display area. We ran low voltage lines for the video walls, 28 Cat6a lines for the video wall and kiosks and 2 separate lines for the audio system.
About the Hardware
Two 12’ wide x 7’ high vertical walls each configured in a 3 x 3 array of 55” Clarity LCD displays were proposed. Both LCD Video Wall Systems offer 32 simultaneous touch points, enabling multiple users to interact. Delivering a superior touch experience, offering pin-point accuracy to prevent false touch points. 700 Nits were required due to the existing sunlight and brightness.
Directional Speakers are always required in this type of configuration. We opted for 6 24” directional speakers…3 per Video Wall. These provide excellent range and directional adjustment allowing us to direct the audio signal to not compete with the neighboring speakers. An audio controller was added to allow us to control each speaker independently.
Two local server systems with gaming engines each were installed to drive the interactive Video Wall. The IDF is located approx 200’ from the video wall system so cat6 cabling was adequate. Off board power for the video Walls allows for convenient data and power management.