The Northern District of California is in the process of a multi-year project involving the installation of evidence presentation systems in certain courtrooms. This follows an upgrade of the sound systems in the oldest courtrooms in the district at the San Francisco courthouse. Each of the upgraded sound systems feature greatly improved amplification and voice reproduction, infrared emitters for the hearing-impaired, closed-channel audio for interpretation, a jury masking "white noise" generator for sidebar conferences and a built-in real-time court reporter transcript distribution system.
The evidence presentation system that was recently installed in San Francisco's Secured Courtroom (Courtroom 4) features a multi-component lectern (which can be relocated to the courtrooms listed below) which includes a digital document camera, DVD/VHS player, CD player, cassette tape deck and inputs for other equipment, including laptop personal computers. There are also PC inputs at counsel tables in the courtroom. Evidence is displayed to the judge, jury, witness and counsel on small flat-screen monitors. Spectators can view evidence on larger flat-screen gallery monitors. Courtroom 4 is available to all judges, upon their request.
Other district judge courtrooms in San Francisco have the same monitor configuration as in Courtroom 4, as well as PC inputs at each counsel table. This enables attorneys to display evidence directly from their laptops or by using their own digital document camera, provided these devices are equipped with a VGA output. The San Francisco courtrooms with this type of installation are the following: Courtroom No. 1 (Judge Conti), Courtroom No. 6 (Chief Judge Walker), Courtroom No. 7 (Judge Chesney), Courtroom No. 8 (Judge Breyer), Courtroom No. 10 (Judge Illston), Courtroom No. 12 (Judge Henderson) and Courtroom No. 15 (Judge Patel).
For additional information, please contact Ian Keye, Chief Deputy of Operations, at (415) 522-2003.
For connection instructions, please see the pdf file below.
