Capitol Idea

Texas state senators speak up with Shure

 

AUSTIN, TEXAS, March 15, 2007—When the Texas State Capitol was completed in 1888, it was billed as "The Seventh Largest Building in the World". Renovated many times over since with central air conditioning added in 1955 and the most recent refurbishments completed in 1997, the domed structure sits upon one of the City of Austin's highest points, anchoring the northern end of the downtown commercial district. Critically acclaimed as one of the nation's most distinguished state capitols, the building made the National Historic Landmark list in 1986 based upon the significant role it has played within American history.

 

The second floor of the Capitol's east wing is where the Senate Chamber can be found. An elegant room painstakingly restored to its 1910 appearance, it still contains the original walnut desks purchased in 1888 for the Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of the Senate and 31 state senators. When Senator Temple Houston, the youngest son of Sam Houston, delivered a dedication day speech at the Capitol on May 16, 1888, he had to rely purely on the power of his own voice to carry his words to those assembled. Such a scenario can hardly be imagined by today's senators, who now have the luxury of being easily and clearly heard throughout the space thanks to a recent sound system upgrade bringing 44 hardwired Shure KSM9 microphones to the room along with 4 channels of the Niles, Illinois-based manufacturer's new UHF-R wireless.

 

"Over the years, systems integration within the Texas State Capitol has become an actual part of the legislative process," explains Ken Dickensheets of Austin-based Dickensheets Design Associates, the firm given the task of creating the sonic blueprint responsible for bringing the Senate Chamber into the 21st century. "Audio technology today serves in an essentially twofold capacity: Sound reinforcement brings direction and clarity to communications on the Senate floor, while a recording system archives all levels of debate as well as the activities of special committees."

 

Sound within the Senate Chamber falls under the guidance of Sharon Scarbrough and the Capitol's Senate Media Services department. Day-to-day audio tasks are managed by Dennis Yoder and Robert Davis, who are responsible for both recording and operation of the sound reinforcement system. The Dickensheets Design blueprint was implemented by another Austin firm, Austin Audio and Video, which worked with Project Manager Christopher Currens from the State Preservation Board to bring the upgrade to successful completion this fall.

 

"Here in the Texas State Senate, things are done slightly different than in other states," notes P.J. Newsom of Austin Audio and Video. "Rules of order require that senators stand when they speak and remain standing for the duration of the time they address the chamber. To accommodate them, our installation team, led by J.J. Alston, placed a Shure KSM9 microphone at each desk attached to a ten-foot coiled cord. Rules also state that only a handheld microphone can be used, or a lavalier. The latter is generally used for filibustering, but in either case a senator must remain in close proximity to his own desk while speaking."

 

Introduced earlier this year, Shure's KSM9 is a reference-quality handheld condenser mic that brings studio quality sound to virtually any vocal application. Featuring dual-diaphragm construction and switchable cardioid/supercardioid versatility, the Shure KSM9s were specified by Ken Dickensheets based upon their performance and ability to help enhance the Senate's natural acoustics.

"Speech intelligibility and clarity of the spoken word are of utmost importance here," Dickensheets adds. "And although we are dealing with politicians, we are not dealing with professional speakers in all cases, so the system's operation and performance had to be optimized to its fullest. The KSM9s were selected based upon their exceptional reproduction quality. They are extremely accurate, have low handling noise, and very good off-axis response that helped bring us very close to the system's point of theoretical maximum gain."

 

The four channels of Shure UHF-R wireless now installed in the Senate Chamber are used for presentations within committees as well as for formal statements and resolutions. KSM9-equipped handheld transmitters were made part of the cord-free package, as were Shure's WCE6T omnidirectional headworn mics and bodypacks to facilitate lavalier use.

 

"The hardwired KSM9 microphones really gave us first-class reproduction of speech, as did the wireless," Dickensheets says, commenting on the project's final results. "The system went online in mid-October and worked like a champ right out of the gate. It was a challenging proposition to integrate modern technology within a historic environment like this, but based upon the evidence, we succeeded quite nicely."

 


Release 38