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     Announcements Press Releases In The News |
Winter 2002 Report If you would like more information on any of these projects or stories, please contact Jeff Wilde, Partner, at (212) 725-6800 or jwilde@smwinc.com. Making a Convention Center Work Long Reverberation, Excellent Intelligibility Overseas: More than a Mall Shen Milsom & Wilke Office in Dubai Technology Update: Emergency Operation Centers Making a Convention Center Work Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Boston
Telecommunications, audiovisual: Shen Milsom & Wilke New York City, David A. Stumer, project manager Completion: Summer 2004 Size: 1.6 million square feet Challenge: The Boston Convention Center includes exhibition space, meeting rooms, a ballroom, and support space. The center will be used by people with greatly varying needs--from conventional telephone service to international videoconferencing. How is the telecom and audiovisual infrastructure designed to meet the needs of different users in these many different spaces--and anticipate future demands? Solution: Shen Milsom & Wilke designed a flexible, re-configurable telecom network that conveniently places all these capabilities at every modular connector-even on the exhibition hall floor. There are also wireless connections. The equipment is designed to support future demands as well. A “shared media” approach means the audiovisual systems infrastructure may share the telecom spaces and cables. Also, to avoid equipment confusion, Shen Milsom & Wilke’s approach allows rental, owner- and exhibitor-supplied audiovisual equipment to be used without problems. The entire system minimizes the support needed from the convention center staff. Long Reverberation, Excellent Intelligibility St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Amarillo, Texas
Acoustics: Shen Milsom & Wilke/Paoletti San Francisco, Houston; Red Wetherill, project manager Completion: Autumn 2002 Challenge: St. Andrews is designed around a “heroic” pipe organ. How do you create the reverberant sound so important for sacred music and still make the spoken word intelligible? Solution: Long reverberation time is achieved in two ways: by providing a large, clear volume of space and ensuring that finish materials are hard and reflective. Shen Milsom & Wilke/Paoletti worked with Overland Partners to specify sound-reflective materials (in this case, plenty of stone) and to create architectural features--particularly around the choir space and the organ--that enhance the sound instead of interfering with it. A pew-back sound amplification system (loudspeakers on the back of each pew) amplifies the words from the pulpit at a low volume. Putting the loudspeakers close to each member of the congregation allows them to hear what is being said without minimizing the reverberant sound. Overseas: More than a Mall BurJuman Centre Expansion, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Architect: Kohn Pedersen Fox, London Acoustics, audiovisual, telecommunications, multimedia: Shen Milsom & Wilke San Francisco; Ward Sellars, principal Completion: Spring 2004 Size: 4 million square feet Challenge: BurJuman Centre is a five-building addition to a shopping center that more than doubles retail space and adds an office tower, conference space, two luxury residential towers, a theater, multi-cinemas, a children's area, and a health club. How are these disparate and distant elements unified under a single technology network? Solution: Shen Milsom & Wilke developed a master plan for the cable television and the various data, voice, and video networks. “The cabling, and the systems that draw from it, was treated like any other essential infrastructure element-plumbing, mechanical, even transportation,” says Ward Sellars, principal at Shen Milsom & Wilke. Center stage is a redundant fiber-optic backbone. This serves as a platform for all of the services. The master plan approach gives the owners maximum flexibility; each building can stand alone (and provide its own services) or work in concert with other buildings. A network operation center is used to monitor the system’s functions. Shen Milsom & Wilke Office in Dubai To serve clients in the Middle East and to answer the increasing demand for services in this part of the world, Shen Milsom & Wilke opened a new office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this winter. Along with the UAE, the office will service Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. Current Shen Milsom & Wilke projects in the area include the Bur Juman Centre Expansion in Dubai and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority in Abu Dhabi City-both Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates in London; the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar-I.M. Pei; the Messilah Beach Hotel in Messilah, Kuwait-Skidmore Owings and Merrill; and the American University in Beirut, Lebanon. Jim Glosser jglosser@smwinc.com is the manager of Shen Milsom & Wilke’s UAE office. Dubai Media City Building 8, Suite 7 Dubai, United Arab Emirates Mobile Phone 971 050 476-4762 Technology Update: Emergency Operation Centers Technically Complex, Increasingly Important By J. Steven Emspak Emergency operation centers provide a place where the progress of disasters, whether natural or manmade, is identified and monitored. As the situation evolves, the operation center can be used to provide disaster relief and coordination services as required. Also referred to as emergency management or crisis centers, these facilities are sophisticated communications hubs packed with multimedia, telecommunications, and audiovisual technology. Creating an emergency operation center requires close coordination among users, engineers, and architects, who are required to allow adequate space for the comfort and ergonomic needs of the users, as well as cabling, information dissemination, data processing, and other communications technologies. An effective crisis center must be technologically bulletproof. Phone, data, and multimedia connections cannot go down during a disaster. It must also be scalable--small enough for daily operations and ease of maintenance but expansive enough to fit the needs of the crisis team during a full activation. Most emergency centers are staffed with a minimal crew 24/7. The rest of the center is staffed as emergencies arise. The skeleton crew is located in one room, where video displays offer multiple windows of information to monitor key services (like telecommunications and weather). Radio equipment is also provided. Other standard layout elements include media briefing, team meeting, and bunk rooms. Police, fire, military, or government officials may staff the space, depending upon the type of emergency. For this reason, the computer and multimedia systems should be flexible and easy to use, supported by an infrastructure that is capable of instant re-configuration to accommodate specialized equipment. Emergency operation centers are not the same as network operation centers, though they are often--and understandably--confused. A network operation center operates 24/7 with a constant level of staff. These employees monitor, identify, and resolve network irregularities. Businesses that use network operation centers include telephone, Internet hosting, and transportation companies, among others. Shen Milsom & Wilke, an international technology consulting practice founded in 1986, offers comprehensive services in the areas of telecommunications, audiovisual/multimedia, and acoustics. The firm has offices in New York, Princeton, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Houston, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas, London, Dubai, and Hong Kong, and a staff of more than 140 professionals. Shen Milsom & Wilke was named one of the 100 fastest growing A/E/P firms in the nation by Zweig White & Associates for the years 2001 and 2002. To unsubscribe please send an e-mail to unsubscribe@smwinc.com. You need to send from the e-mail account in which you receive the newsletter. No subject or content is needed. If you cannot send from that account, or wish to change your subscription e-mail address, mail us at smw@smwinc.com. |
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