David Montgomery

PIERRE — The South Dakota Capitol was built at the beginning of the 20th century. Now a renovation on the building’s fourth floor has brought it into the 21st.

Cramped committee rooms, narrow hallways and limited accessibility spurred members of the South Dakota Legislature to approve a $2 million renovation of the building’s fourth floor. Along with larger rooms and more comfortable seats, the Legislature invested in state-of-the-art technology to make state government more accessible to people across South Dakota.

Capital Journal Image Room 414, the largest conference room in the Capitol, features six flat-screen televisions which can show computer presentations or DVDs. The televisions are part of a $2 million renovation of the building’s fourth floor. The project added an array of high-tech gadgetry to the conference room. Advertisement

Room 414, the largest conference room in the Capitol, features six flat-screen televisions. These screens can show computer presentations or DVDs to the audience, but they are also connected to a high-tech collection of gadgets.

Two cameras face forward toward legislators seated at the front of the room. Rather than showing a wide shot or requiring someone to manually pan the cameras, they automatically swivel to focus on the active speaker.

Another camera offers a frontal view of the witness desk in the center of the room, allowing audience members to see speakers’ faces instead of backs. Two other cameras are aimed at the audience.

“It’s easier for those attending,” said Rep. Tim Rounds, R-Pierre, who has used the room for a committee meeting and for a presentation. “That’s what the purpose of it is, for those who drive to our state Capitol to be here for the Legislature to give testimony. I think it’s an excellent improvement.”

Right now, the cameras give audience members in the room a better vantage point, helping to counteract the effects of two architecturally-necessary pillars which block some views of the front. But they’re also designed to bring meetings in the room to people elsewhere in the state.

Legislative Research Council director James Fry said the room is connected to the Dakota Digital Network.

“We’ve done video-conference meetings before, using the DDN studio in the basement,” Fry said. “What’s new to people is doing it in a setting they’re very comfortable with, a setting that’s set up as a committee room rather than as a studio.”

Lou Adamson, the LRC’s legislative information system coordinator, said the video-conference technology will be useful when bad weather or short notice prevents key witnesses from being present at committee meetings.

“If they want to do a video conference with anyone — if some people couldn’t come in to testify because of bad weather, they could actually go to a DDN site in, say, Sioux Falls, and we can set them up with our cameras so they can see us and we can see them, and they can actually testify on a bill, if necessary,” Adamson said.

Currently, audio feeds of all legislative committee meetings are broadcast on the Internet for citizens to hear. But the new automatic camera system means the capability for sending streaming video to television stations or online viewers, without the expense of having someone in the room operate a camera.

The LRC is not yet streaming video and so far only South Dakota Public Broadcasting is configured to take television feeds from the camera system. But Fry said the technology is designed to be expandable to adapt to future innovations.

“Each succeeding class of legislators is more technologically adept and comfortable. I think they’ll have ideas that maybe we haven’t even thought of,” Fry said. “We tried to accommodate this kind of growth by making the system as programmable and as flexible as possible, so when they have an idea that’s new, that hasn’t been tried before, we’ll be able to accommodate what they want to do and see if it works.”

Current legislators are just getting used to the technology.

“You’re a little in awe when you first go in there.  It’s a big room and a little elegant, with all the gadgets there. I think some people may have a little stage fright at first,” Rounds said. “But it makes it easier for the members of the committee to see the information and for those in the audience to identify with those making the presentations and with the committee members. In the long run it’s going to be a little more personable.”

“It’s still a little new to me,” said Sen. Bob Gray, R-Pierre. “I think some of the value is going to be being able to see some of the exhibits up close and being able to have people from outside of Pierre offer testimony from time to time. I think that will help quite a bit.”

Aside from the technology, Fry and legislators are pleased about the spacious size.

“The major value here is not just the technology,” Fry said. “The main value is that we now have a room that’s capable of holding a crowd of people that are here for a very important issue.”

“There have been many, many committee meetings in the past that have been too full. We couldn’t get all the people that wanted to be there in the committee room,” said Gray. “I think we’ve remedied that. We’ve made it much more accessible for everyone to be able to see the legislative process in action.”

Rounds and Gray said it is uncomfortable to be opening a new, high-tech addition at a time when the state government is facing a revenue shortfall.

“To unveil a fourth-floor remodel at the same time as we may be experiencing some cuts is not good timing whatsoever,” Gray said. “I think we all fully realize that. The reality is those decisions were made in previous years, frankly going back to 2004 or so.”

Rounds said he was the only legislator to vote against the project.

“We spent a lot of money up there. I think we could have built something a little less expensive that could have served our needs,” said Rounds.

But having spent the money, Rounds said he likes the results.

 “It’s nice to have, we’re going to take advantage of it,” he said.