Appendix A: Room Setup

These are things I do before each meeting outside of the control room setup. Different boards will have different requirements and if you aren’t running one of the following meetings, you can ignore this section:

  • City Council

  • Planning and Zoning

  • MPFDC (Parks)

  • MEDC

Laptop

The laptop used for meetings is in the control room next to the black filing cabinet. It has a green label on it that says “Dais Laptop”.

The power supply and a presentation remote are in the front pocket of the laptop bag.

  1. Set it up at the Assistant City Secretary’s section (where Keera sits).

  2. There’s a power strip on the floor directly below. Make sure it’s turned on and use this to for the laptop’s power supply.

  3. Plug the HDMI cable and USB hub into the laptop.

  4. Ensure it displays correctly by selecting “Meeting Input” on the touch screen.

  5. Plug the presentation remote dongle into the laptop and set it at the podium (make sure the remote is turned on).

  6. Go to each position on the Dais and turn on the monitors. The power button is on the bottom right.

  7. Turn on the podium monitor by pressing the power button on the bottom right.

  8. Make sure the annotation system works by drawing a happy face on the screen.

  • You should see it on the LED screens as well as the podium monitor.

  • Be sure to clear the happy face afterwards 😂

Voting

Note

This is only required for the following boards:

  • City Council

  • Planning and Zoning

  • MPFDC (but they should be fine without it)

If you aren’t running one of these, you can skip this section.

You will need to set up and test the voting system before the meeting starts. During the meeting, the board’s liason will handle the rest.

  1. Make sure the USB hub is plugged into the laptop.

  2. Double-click on the “Deliberator” icon on the desktop.

  3. Use File -> Open and select the file for the board you are setting up.

  4. Towards the bottom, there are four tabs with the last one labeled “Vote”. Click it to select.

  5. You should now see “Voting Control” below the tabs. Click on the “Vote” button to start testing the voting system.

  6. Walk around to each voting position to check the devices

  • Each voter’s device should be flashing.

  • Press one of the vote buttons and watch the LED screen to make sure the name matches with the position.

  • Hint: I usually turn on the monitors at this time for efficiency 😎.

  1. If everything looks good, click the “Clear” button to stop testing.

Speaker Timer

For City Council meetings, you will need to set up the Speaker Timer. It’s the beige box next to where the laptop is set up.

  1. Flip the power switch on the back to turn it on.

  2. Set the “Total Time” to 5:00 (5 minutes) by pressing the + and - buttons labelled “Set Total Time”.

  3. Set the “Sum-Up Time” to 0:30 (30 seconds).

  • To adjust in seconds, you will first need to press the “Seconds” button on the bottom left.

  • Use the + and - buttons labelled “Set Sum-Up Time” to adjust the time.

  1. Set the buttons on the left column so that “Blink” and “Beep” are the only ones lit.

Digital Nameplates

Powering On and Off

There are three remotes at the Assistant City Secretary’s section. Two of them are for the nameplates (labeled “Nameplates - Middle” and “Nameplates - Sides”). [1]

You’ll need to hold the remote below the nameplates and point it upwards to turn them on and off.

Control Dashboard

In order to change what’s shown on the nameplates, you will need to use the control dashboard. This allows you to select which “Board” is currently active, which will update the nameplates accordingly.

Important

You will need to be connected to the city network (either wired or wireless) to access the control dashboard. The guest network will not work for this.

  1. Navigate to the control dashboard at http://mansf-granicus_live.ci.mansfield.tx.us/

  2. Click on the Account menu in the top right corner to log in.

  3. Click on the “Boards” tab at the top to show the list of boards.

  4. Select the board you want to make active by clicking on the radio button next to it. The nameplates will update automatically to show the current board.

Post-Meeting

Pretty much just do the reverse of the above. Make sure the power strip is turned off and the laptop is put away (don’t forget about the presentation remote).