the woodlands township board is out of it’s (collective) goddamn mind.
i like to think of myself as less than technologically-challenged. i know a little about a lot, and a lot about a little when it comes to IT stuff, computer peripherals, operating systems, software, hardware – as well as internet connectivity, electronics, audio/visual equipment and so on.
oh, and mobile phones. a tiny fraction. i mean, i can use mine – i could probably even show you how to use yours! ;op
my point is, on a scale of one to ten, when presented with a rfp (request for proposal) for a/v equipment going into an office building, i’m comfortable saying i’m about a 7 or so. okay, 6. i can read it, i’m fairly knowledgeable about most everything requested in it, and, given enough time, i could probably figure out how to hook up at least half of it. i could certainly help someone else do it. all that being said…
one of the innovations of the woodlands township’s website overhaul a couple of years ago was the ability to subscribe to several different distribution lists in specific areas. one of the lists i subscribe to is the IT list. i like to keep up to date with new technology being put to use around here. this morning, i got an email letting me know that the woodlands township IT department has posted an rfp for the a/v equipment to go into their new/renovated building they’re consolidating all the offices into in the near future. after getting past all of the legal-eze and insurance requirements, i got to the meat of it – and was completely blown away at the excessiveness of it all.
now, i realize the woodlands township has, for all intents and purposes, money to burn. its a bleak and glum economy out there, but here in the woodlands, we are (almost) completely insulated from the down turn. while houston struggles to figure out how to keep the whole bayou system working with little or no money, we here in the woodlands manage to not only continue to fund our fugly boats in our concrete ditch to nowhere, we build a (largely unnecessary) building on a (largely unfeasible) site right out there on the feeder road to advertise our lack of basic financial common sense. but be that as it may, someone, anyone, please tell me what real, feasible purpose most of this stuff serves besides to tell the world, “toldja; we really are stupid-rich!” take a look (edited for length, but all equipment specs are accurate):
room 1 – board chambers
(11) microphones, (1) wireless handheld microphone & (1) wireless lapel microphone
(9) 23” monitors for the 9 dais positions synchronized for viewing presentations
(2) a/v inputs for laptop/pc
(1) document camera input
(1) tv/video projector
(1) projector screen or monitor viewable by the board members and presenter
(3) wall monitors for audience viewing of presentations
cable/dvd setup
(3) ptz (pan/tilt/zoom) video cameras
(1) system to record audio/video for internet broadcasting
(1) control panel
sound reinforcement
room 2 – overflow room for the board chambers
(1) minimum 42” lcd, with audio
(1) electronic display board and conference room map display
room 3 – executive conference room
(1) tv/video projector
(1) projector screen
(1) interactive white board
(1) dvd player
sound reinforcement
(2) a/v pc inputs
(1) control panel
rooms 4, 6, 7 and 8 – conference rooms
(4) a/v projection systems
(4) projector screen
(4) a/v pc inputs
(4) simple controls
room 5 – multipurpose/training
(1) projector screen
(1) mounted projector with tv/dvd functionality
(2) a/v pc inputs
(1) lapel microphone
(1) wireless handheld microphone
sound reinforcement
room 9 – conference
(1) a/v projection system
(1) a/v pc input
(1) projector screen
(1) dvd player
basic controls
rooms 11 and 15 – conference rooms
(2) a/v projection systems
(2) projector screens
(2) a/v pc inputs
(2) simple controls
room 16 – main lobby
(2) electronic display boards
outdoor kiosk
(1) electronic display/bulletin board
room 18 – emergency operations center
(2) a/v projection systems
(2) 60” lcds for cable/satellite
sound reinforcement
basic controls
totals:
(16) monitors, ranging from 23” – 60” (or 15, if one is replaced with a projector screen)
(10) projector screens (or 9, if one is replaced with a monitor)
(9) a/v projection systems
(3) projectors
(4) electronic displays
(3) ptz video cameras
(1) recording system
(1) interactive white board
(1) dvd player
(1) document camera input
(4) rooms worth of sound reinforcement (speaker equipment)
(12) a/v pc inputs
(11) microphones
(2) wireless handheld microphones
(2) wireless lapel microphones
(8) control panels/basic control systems
plus all of the thousands of feet of cat5 cable, coaxial cable, speaker wire, microphone cables and component cables.
allow me to point out just a few of the most glaring issues with this kid-in-a-candy-store-shopping-list…
in the board room, if you’re going to require a projection screen that is “visible by the board members and presenter” – do you really need nine 23″ monitors + three wall monitors for the board members and audience to be able to see presentations? and if you do really justify that, then seriously – 23″ monitors?? no one will be able to see the board members behind those big-ass monitors! i know, i’m looking at a 24″ monitor right now, and as big as my head is (ha) you can’t see it from the other side. of course, maybe that’s why they need
three pan-tilt-zoom cameras in there. three!! do you know how much those babies run? a halfway-decent one’s gonna be ~$500, and something tells me the woodlands township isn’t going to settle for halfway-decent. not when they want
an interactive whiteboard in the “executive” conference room – holy %@#*-ing $hit!! they didn’t even say what size they wanted, but a cheap one will run ~$1,000! although, apparently, size is no object – as despite the fact that they will now have 11 conference/board/multi-purpose/training rooms available to them, they still need
a 1,000 square-foot “emergency operations center” that incredibly needs not one, but two 60″ lcd tv’s, complete with cable and/or satellite hook-ups!! you know, for that one hurricane we get every 5-10 years. they can’t possibly control the chaos from any one of the other 11 rooms available, they need a whole separate room for when the $hit hits the fan!
but i tell you what, us lowly citizens will have little excuse for not knowing what’s going on with the township, when they’re spending thousands of dollars to record it for posterity, broadcast it online, and display it on those four electronic displays!!! you know, those lighted signs that you see with scrolling messages… again, no exact specifications given (monochrome or full color? one line by 12 characters or stupid freakin’ huge?) so let’s go with middle-of-the-road and assume a minimum of 2′ x 5′, 3-color… only about $3,600 a piece.
one last question (if i can catch my breath) – if the whole point of this construction/renovation project is to consolidate all of the woodlands township offices into one location, to make them function more efficiently and cost-effectively – and if the woodlands is all about living green and recycling – can anyone honestly tell me the woodlands township doesn’t already have one single piece of any of this equipment already in use in any of it’s buildings anywhere? seriously??? they need all of this stuff – hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stuff – because they don’t have any of it anywhere else that they can move into this building?