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| SUPERIOR COURT |
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TECHNOLOGY IN SUPERIOR COURT
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| OUR FIRST EXPERIMENTAL eCOURTROOM |
In August of 1999, the Delaware State Bar
Association teamed up with vendors to design and implement what was
purported to be the nation's first actively used courtroom of the future.
Designated the eCourtroom, the Superior Court of Delaware used
this experimental courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware to hold civil trials.
The hope was that the eCourtroom would serve as a model of efficiency
for courts across the country. Until then, it will serve as a testing
ground for technologies and designs before final plans are made for the
new 55-courtroom New Castle County Courthouse.
The entire room was constructed on a platform raised two inches above
the floor of the courtroom. In the event that the court or trial attorneys'
desired to modify the current layout of the seating and/or workstations,
the entire modular installation could be rapidly modified.
Our
first eCourtroom was configured with a nine-station Compaq computer network with two Compaq servers, an Intel network switch, and Viewsonic flat
LCD monitors. The network links attorneys, judges, podium and witness
stand, the court technologist, and other courtroom personnel using Microsoft
NetMeeting collaboration software. This software allowed the participants
to communicate and send documents between stations during the trial proceedings.
All stations can view the Realtime Livenote court transcription that instantly appears on screen as the court reporter
works.
Brandywine Electronics, Ltd. installed
and configured the audio and visual presentation equipment. A browser-operated Crestron control system on the network
controls any electrically operated device installed in the eCourtroom
The court technologist can assign or limit individual audiovisual control
functions to a given station as directed by the judge.
A document camera, three multimedia playback systems, and ceiling-mounted
projector allow computerized images to be projected on a large SmartBoard®
touch sensitive computerized whiteboard mounted behind the witness. The
witness can draw or write electronically on the projected image and the
individual or composite images produced can be stored and reproduced by
the computer system. The state of art sound system combined with a digital
sound recording system to provide four-track recording and playback of
the proceedings. Also installed was a pink noise system (similar
to white noise) to be broadcast to the jury while judge and attorneys
conduct private sidebar conferences.
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