Initial system design work and equipment selection for their state-of-the-art centralized courtroom technology management system for the Fairfax County Courthouse located in Fairfax, Virginia was developed in partnership with the Fairfax County Courtroom Technology Office (CrTO) and the design firm Miller, Beam & Paganelli (MBP).  Based on past experiences, MBP and the CrTO recommended Professional Products, Inc. (PPI) for design review and final system integration.

The system includes the centralized master control room (MCR), which provides the core routing functionality for the Courthouse Technology Management System and the audio and video connectivity between local routable sources such as, a VGA document camera, DVD/VCR player, audio interface and multiple computer AV interfaces and accommodates external conferencing requirements.  Designed to meet future demands and growth needs, a 36x36-fiber router serves as the backbone of the system and is expandable up to 288x288.  Additionally, a separate gigabit Ethernet data network connects all of the courtroom technology locations into a single, self-contained communications network.  A complex and sophisticated control system supported by multiple video teleconferencing (VTC) codec’s is shared by the new courtrooms and offers bi-directional and multi-point conferencing capabilities.

The courtrooms contain touch-screen panels for the judge, clerk and attorneys to control multiple microphones and high-definition (HD) plasma displays for the court recorder, clerk, judge, attorneys, jurors and gallery when presenting, viewing evidence and remote witnesses.  The electronic evidence presentation system provides for various evidence sources including DVD/VCR, document camera, computer video and multi-audio interface with annotation and printing capabilities.  Prisoner arraignments are conducted on a daily basis from the Adult Detention Center to any of the high-tech courtrooms via the fiber connectivity.