AUDIO ARTS + MASS TRANSIT = BART PLAZA

The newly renovated Downtown Berkeley BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) Plaza created an enjoyable get-together environment for local residents, the folks who work downtown and visitors to the famed city of Berkeley CA. Accordingly, in this article, we will explore the public-art, sound and lighting facets of the plaza, while also examining the BART station located directly below the gathering place.

A view of the main entrance from the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza to the trains, which are located below.

The $9 million renovation opened on October 18, 2018. The update included a newly paved main entrance, speaker and light poles, stage lighting, and trees and landscaping for the plaza, which is the heart of downtown and a transit portal for the city. Furthermore, the plaza is a place to showcase the creative and artistic soul of Berkeley. The activation plan was developed by the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA), working in close association with city of Berkeley staffers and the Civic Arts Commission (CAC), and in consultation with Mayor Jesse Arreguín and Council Member Kate Harrison.

Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza features a soundscape audio system and stage lighting.

Nothing Like ‘Home’

You can’t miss the eye-catching “Home”—a giant steel globe, created by Berkeley-based artist Michael Christian, which will be on display for a year. The sculpture is an oversized desktop globe composed of multiple layers of steel, with cutouts of street maps from around the world. At night, light from within the piece casts shadows of the maps onto the surrounding plaza. Whether seen by day or at night, the artwork evokes the interconnectedness of all people and places around the world.

Digital signage is a resource for transit schedules.

Complementing the global display, the first sound-art installation in the plaza was “Flow in Place” by another Berkeley-based creator: composer Chris Brown. The work is composed of field recordings of musical performances, along with natural and urban environments from around the world. (For additional details, see the sidebar titled “Sound-Art Installations.”)

The plaza design went from a classic aesthetic to a modern glass canopy. The icositegragonal—or 24-sided—rotunda that rose above the Downtown Berkeley BART station since 1973 has now given way to a more open-designed plaza. Gone are the old red bricks that once surrounded the station entrance and the scattered benches.

“The idea was, when the plaza reopened, to have it feel like a totally different space,” Jennifer Lovvorn, Chief Cultural Affairs Officer, Civic Arts Program, for the city of Berkeley, revealed. “We wanted it to feel like a totally different space from the previous big brick architectural features. There were some permanently built-in benches that really divided up the space and that made it not feel warm and welcoming. There were some illicit activities taking place in little nooks and crannies that people could duck into. So, we wanted the new space to be welcoming and available for use by everyone.”

“One of the really important things about this location is that the Downtown Berkeley BART station, which is right below the plaza, is the gateway for a lot of people coming to our city,” Lovvorn continued. “The university is one of the huge draws for people coming in. A lot of people arrive by BART public transit, and buses also stop at BART.”

Opening Day on the plaza. The Berkeley Symphony accompanied the unveiling of Michael Christian’s “Home” sculpture

Lovvorn explained that the primary purpose of the integrated AV elements is to create a sound environment. That includes the Alcorn McBride A/V Binloop playing continuously within the limits of the city’s sound ordinance, which is 7am to 7pm from Monday through Friday (and extended to 8pm on weekends).

The other use for the sound system is for live events and performances in the designated stage area, whereupon the A/V Binloop is turned off and performers can use live sound equipment.

“The system in set up to be flexible,” Lovvorn pointed out. “It has many uses to help facilitate activation of the space. The performances don’t happen all the time; there may be two a week, and that would be in the evening or at lunchtime. The balance of the time, the sound installation with the A/V Binloop is playing.”

Integration Challenges

BugID, based in San Francisco CA, facilitated the audio being heard throughout the plaza, which includes prerecorded content, public address, live performances and artist soundscapes. The integrator’s President, Matt Lavine, was the lead designer for the plaza space. Other key personnel included the project’s lead installer, Davis Selland, and its AV systems programmer, Isaac Darnell. The AV design/install company’s contract was $295,000 for all the AV and lighting equipment, as well as for installation services. (Note: That figure does not include content-related costs.)

“I was brought into the project in December 2015,” Lavine recalled. “So, I was helping out the city and the Civic Arts Commission figure out ideas, designs and the budget for almost two years. The city of Berkeley hired BugID in November 2017, and we finally went live in October 2018.”

Continuing the story, Lavine said, “It was definitely a challenging project to create a soundscape that’s easy for artists and the city of Berkeley to use. Another challenge was installing a high-end professional sound system on a city street. That’s not a typical situation. There are security measures you wouldn’t normally take.” That aspect of the project was considered by BART a few years prior to the integrator coming onboard. “By the time this came to us in 2015,” Lavine resumed, “BART already had drawings and space allocations for where the electrical equipment would go. But nobody thought about audiovisual equipment in a public-works space—especially in a street plaza.”

In short, this project—with its AV equipment and the low voltages that come with it—was anything but typical. “It was definitely a challenge to work within the constraints of BART and the city of Berkeley in terms of trying to fit an AV rack on a street inside a tamper-proof box,” Lavine elaborated. “And then there was the issue of ventilation, because there’s no HVAC…no air conditioning. Most of the telephone and electrical equipment on the side of the street consisted of transformers, relays and related equipment.”

Lavine explained that BugID’s solution was to design a rack that would fit inside an industrial-grade metal cabinet. At the same time, the integrator worked with mechanical engineers to help design a fan and exhaust system to make sure sufficient heat was removed from the cabinet.

Details On Plaza Install

Let’s zoom out to take a wide view of the BugID install. As noted earlier, prerecorded audio content on the plaza is played back on eight discrete audio channels via an Alcorn McBride A/V Binloop player. An Alcorn Mc- Bride VCore-S show controller was included in the system to enable scheduling of content playback. The audio content is delivered via eight Meyer Sound UPJ-1XP compact VariO speakers, which are powered by a dedicated external DC power supply. It was a natural move for the city of Berkeley to turn to Meyer Sound for the speakers, Lavine added, given that the venerable sound company is itself based in Berkeley.

An electrical and AV equipment enclosure, located on the plaza.

There were a number of considerations taken with regard to speakers, including their security. “We put security chains and bolts on all the speakers,” Lavine recalled. “They’re mounted up 14 feet [of the 21-foot poles], so you have to be pretty crafty to get a speaker off a light pole!” Continuing, he turned to power. “One of the advantages of the UPJ-1XP is that it’s a 48V speaker system,” Lavine said. “With one MPS-488HPp power supply, we’re able to power eight speakers. So, the Meyer Sound speakers were the perfect solution for this application, and they sound great.”

Audio Playback

Another consideration was playback. “We didn’t know when we were brought in that there was no one from the city who could operate this system,” Lavine pointed out. “So, we really had to think about how various artists coming in would use the system. We thought about a number of things, such as putting in a computer. But computers take a lot more maintenance over time, and you continually have software updates.”

“We went with Alcorn McBride, which makes professional-grade units that run 24 hours a day,” Lavine affirmed. “The A/V Binloop plays eight channels of discrete audio, and we can schedule it. For example, Monday through Friday, between 11am and 4pm, we might want to play an artist soundscape. Then, we might want to play different music in the evening.”

Elaborating, Lavine noted that, between the Alcorn McBride VCore-S show controller and a Crestron CP3N 3-Series central controller, BugID can create schedules of content and then load CompactFlash (CF) cards into the A/V Binloop for the various soundscapes.

Live Presentations

The city wanted to be sure that, for bands and other live performers, a small mixing board could be jacked into the system and used with the permanently installed Meyer Sound speakers. Alternately, the city might seek to use the sound system for a speech or similar live presentation. “Since it’s a public space for performance art, someone may want to read poetry,” Lavine explained. “External microphones can be plugged into the system. That’s where the Crestron TST-902 wireless controller with an 8.7-inch screen comes in. You can take it out of the rack and walk about the plaza with it to adjust sound levels.”

There are two different DSPs to move and process the audio. Meyer Sound’s Galileo Galaxy 816 is the speaker’s final EQ. There’s also a QSC Q-SYS Core 110f for matrix routing and control. “We’re able to call up various presets and adjust levels on the Crestron,” Lavine explained. “Then, the QSC feeds the Meyer Galileo Galaxy. We wanted to create a mixer on the Crestron touchpanel that was easy to use. So, our touchscreen has control whether someone is using it as a PA or doing a soundscape on the plaza.” A Dell Latitude 5480 14-inch laptop is provided for artists who want to become more creative with sound; it offers them access to the QSC and Meyer Sound DSPs.

A Flexible System

Lavine elaborated on some other flexible features of the plaza system. In creating a soundscape, the artist might want to create a stereo piece using the eight speakers. That can be replicated as left/right stereo, or it can be done as eight discrete channels. “There are individual presets that are on the touchscreen that are really unique in recalling the artist’s feed use,” he said.

Furthermore, the user is not wedded to the 8.7-inch wireless touchscreens. “When I designed this system, I didn’t want a wire- less-only solution because there are some drawbacks,” Lavine commented. “First, people forget to put them on the charging dock. Second, people walk off with them. Third, they drop them.” He continued, “So, we attached a Crestron TSW-560-B-S five-inch touchscreen to the AV rack as a default. That way, we know there’s always a fixed screen controller available.” There are two of the larger TST-902s: one mounted and the other freer to enable people to roam the plaza.

In general, “turnkey” was an operative guiding principle for BugID. “It’s a full turnkey system, because we didn’t want a system where the user would be relying on an AV integrator to make all the changes,” Lavine said. Staying with that thread, BugID provided four Shure SM58- CN cardioid dynamic vocal microphones. “[Presenters can] plug in a microphone and use the speakers as a PA,” Lavine pointed out. “On the plaza’s opening day, the user brought in a sound mixer to plug into the system. The DBA was able to manage that by bringing in the artists and dealing with rentals. Meanwhile, we’ve been training people from the DBA.”

Lighting Considerations

BugID worked with two Berkeley-based lighting consultants to design lights on the plaza poles. They were Alice Prussin, of Illuminosa Lighting Design, and theatrical lighting designer Jack Carpenter. “We wound up modifying the existing light poles and putting in two ETC Desire D60XTI 60- LED wash lights on every pole, except two light poles closer to where the stage would be set up,” Lavine said. “That location has three lights.” All of them are color-changing lights, rather than robotic, because the budget wasn’t available for robotic lights. “Plus,” Lavine added, “we had to think about long-term maintenance.”

There’s an ETC CS20 20-fader DMX lighting console that plugs into the wall panel that also accommodates microphones. The DMX has presets of various lighting colors and changes. For convenience, multiple presets are on the Crestron controller, so the user can run things right from the touchscreen. Indeed, it’s possible to do a whole audio and lighting show for which the PA volume and all the stage lights are controlled from the Crestron.

Summing up, Lavine said, “It was great for me to see the city embracing public arts…to be part of a project that’s encouraging artists of the community to express themselves and be creative. It’s in an environment that’s enjoyable to walk through, sit in, have lunch in, or hear a rally or hear a live band.” He continued, “It’s rare to be part of a public-works project that is creating an immersive soundscape. It was challenging, but, to hear Chris Brown as the first artist at the opening, it was definitely worth the amount of time and effort put in.”

An upwardfacing view of a sound and light pole in the plaza area.

Downtown Berkeley BART Station

Now that we’ve explored the publicart installation in depth, let’s review the Downtown Berkeley BART station below the plaza. For that, we relied on a written description from Scott D. Smith, Staff Ar- chitect, Office of District Architect, San Francisco BART District.

The overall project sought to enhance multi-model transit access and capacity for pedestrians and bicyclists, with improved safety and security in the plaza and in the transit area. The utmost care was taken in all aspects of the design and execution, as Downtown Berkeley is one of BART’s busiest stations, with around 30,000 riders a day.

With regard to technology, real-time information display systems (RTDs) help transit riders get where they need to go, displaying information for both the buses and the trains. Specifically, the display screens show the transit operators’ logos/ modes of transportation and service lines. Departure times are displayed in a consistent format that’s easy to read and clearly illustrated. Information is updated every few seconds, and the current time is always displayed on the screens. The page can scroll to subsequent ones, if needed.

The associated components were included as part of a performance specification in the plaza construction contract, and they took only a matter of weeks to install. However, given the scope of the larger improvement project, installation had to wait until all the demolition, underground, foundation and utility work had been completed.

According to Smith, coordinating the scope of the RTDs with the plaza improvements presented a challenge. The equipment installation and configuration of the system was fairly quick, he said, because all the configuration and design of the system was already completed prior to construction. The hard wiring of the data lines and tying into the network connection were not as easy, however. The conduit, circuits and cables had to be installed and pulled so as not to impact any operations of the station or impede pedestrian circulation. The work had to be performed at night, during nonrevenue hours or at off-peak times.

With regard to components, Peerless-AV XHB552 55-inch Xtreme high-bright outdoor displays were chosen, combined with Peerless- AV CL-ENCL68 small-form-factor enclosures. The compact, sleek design combined the displays with the enclosures, allowing for nicer aesthetics and performance criteria to be met. According to Smith, “The displays can be located in direct sunlight without any glare; they are weather-tight and can operate in rain; and the brightness of the displays helps the legibility of the content and provides a better customer experience for transit riders.” The displays are driven by an Advantech DS-081 ultra-slim fanless digital signage player. The power requirements are 120V, with Cat6A cable routed to the network. The signage player points to a URL with the transit information for the plaza.

Finally, for the AC Transit NextBus Displays, hardware is limited to two MB-961603-S/S NextBus Signs. The signs are self-contained, and they only need AC power to run. All communications are done via the General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) digital cellular system between the sign and the bus. The sign requires continuous AC power, which is supplied from a dedicated breaker.

By Jim Stokes

Sound-Art Installations

The first sound-art installation on the Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza was an original, site-specific composition, called “Flow in Place,” by local composer and electronic musician Chris Brown. The work, which ran for two months, was composed of field recordings of musical performances augmented with natural and urban environments from around the world. The recordings were shuffled together into sequences that accompany the movement of people heading from the BART station entrance through the plaza, suggesting conversations and connections between distant places and global environments. (For more information, visit www.cbmuse.com/talkingdrum.) Brown’s installation was the first in a series of 10 sound-art installations, with presentations subject to change. The slate of composers included in the series includes a mix of preeminent sound artists as well as exciting newcomers to the scene. “Berkeley and the East Bay are home to a thriving electronic arts scene, and the new Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza has been built with a sound system infrastructure to give the city of Berkeley a unique opportunity to present this exciting art form,” Berkeley Civic Arts Commission Chair Kim Anno stated. “This one-of-a-kind audio environment will engage the public in inspiring and provocative ways.”

EQUIPMENT:

1 Advantech DS-081 6 th -gen Intel Core i3/i5 ultra-slim fanless digital signage player

1 Alcorn McBride A/V Binloop 32-track/16-channel synchronous audio/video player

8 Alcorn McBride CF32GB certified 32GB CompactFlash cards

1 Alcorn McBride DIN-19 19" DIN rail kit

1 Alcorn McBride VCore-S show controller

2 Crestron CEN-GWEXER-PWE infiNET EX and ER wireless gateways w/PoE injectors

1 Crestron CEN-SWPOE-16 16-port managed PoE switch

1 Crestron CP3N 3-Series control system

1 Crestron DIN-SACN-DMX Ethernet-to-DMX converter

2 Crestron TST-902 8.7" wireless touchscreens

1 Crestron TST-902-DSW wall dock for TST-902

1 Crestron TSW-560/760-RMK-1 rackmount kit for TSW-560 and TSW-760

1 Crestron TSW-560-B-S 5" touchscreen (black, smooth)

1 Dell Latitude 5480 14" laptop

1 Doug Fleenor Designs PRE10-A DMX512 10-zone wall controller

1 ETC CS20 20-fader ColorSource lighting console (40-channel/device)

18 ETC Desire D60XTI Lustr+ front light wash fixtures

1 ETC I1865 pelican case w/interior foam

36 ETC strain relief devices for XTI fixtures

18 Killark KFS-6 steel slipfitters for 2" pipes

1 Meyer Sound Galileo Galaxy 816 2RU 240V AC network processor

1 Meyer Sound MPS-488HPp IntelligentDC power supply w/phoenix 5-pin male output connectors

8 Meyer Sound MUB-UPJ U-shaped mounting bracket kits

8 Meyer Sound UPJ-1XP 10" compact VariO speakers

1 Middle Atlantic D2 2RU drawer (anodized)

2 Middle Atlantic PB-XS slim power strip brackets

2 Middle Atlantic PD-815SC-NS 15A 8-outlet high-density slim power strips

1 Middle Atlantic SRSR-4-25 25RU SRSR Series 19" rotating sliding rail system

1 Middle Atlantic SS sliding rackshelf (1RU)

2 Middle Atlantic UTR1 mounting rackshelves (1RU, 10"D)

2 NextBus MB-961603-S/S signs

1 Pathway Connectivity P4814 RDM installation splitter

1 Pathway Connectivity Pathport 1014-TRM 4-port compact gateway

1 Peerless-AV CL-ENCL68 small-form-factor electronics enclosure

2 Peerless-AV XHB552 55" Xtreme high-bright outdoor displays

1 QSC Q-SYS Core 110f unified core

1 Rolls MB15b Promatch 2-way stereo converter

4 Shure SM58-CN vocal mics w/cables

2 Signal Transport custom engraved I/O panels

1 SnapAV WB-300-IP-3 WattBox IP power conditioner (compact) w/OvrC Home

1 TMB ZPP45NB25L ProPlex DMX cable (25')

1 Tripp Lite SMART750RM1U 750VA/.75kVA/600W line interactive, sine wave UPS system

List is edited from information supplied by BugID and Scott D. Smith.

Plaza Amenities

Let’s take a glance at amenities in the new Downtown Berkeley BART Plaza. There’s a Welcome Kiosk, designed by Square Peg Designs, consisting of four pylons with four illuminated light boxes, featuring maps, brochures and lists of downtown cultural happenings. Sidewalk seating in front of storefront cafés is accommodated, as are bistro tables and chairs in the middle of the plaza. Berkeley LIVE! programs music and other artistic performances, as well as community activities, in a staging area that makes use of the eight speaker sound poles.