Pro Audio-Visual Marks New City EOC

Workers are still pulling cables and wires on the second floor of a unremarkable building in downtown Los Angeles (Calif.), but when they’re finished the city will have a remarkable new, $107 million Emergency Operations Center and fire department comm center with sophisticated audio-visual features to monitor even the most complex incident. During a recent tour of the 84,000 s.f. center, the main EOC floor was finished and training on the various gear was underway.

The EOC consists of 16, eight-position workstations, each dedicated to specific agency or task. In turn, each workstation has its own set of computer terminals, telephones and A-V gear to review and share information from a wide variety of interior and exterior sources. The police department is already using an adjacent space for their operations center, which constantly monitors incidents large and small. Upstairs, the future LAFD comm center is empty as workers finalize console layouts and positions, and then begin on equipment installation.

When the FD center is finished, it will also feature a sophisticated audio-visual network for presenting information to dispatchers. John Billar, president of contractor Spectrum Video Inc., has spent three years working on the new EOC, specifying and designing audio-visual systems and monitoring construction and installation tasks. Billar is a Certified Technology Specialist, granted by the InfoComm International trade association representing A-V professionals. The three-level certification program recognizes the increasing complexity and importance of A-V in public safety and other critical applications. Review photos of the new EOC and LAFD comm center here.