Press Overspill Facilities
There are times where there is so much press interest in a trial or inquest, that a seperate annexe has to be installed as space in the court is limited.
RTS Communications are experienced in the design,build and installation of all the necessary audio visual equipment for courtrooms and court annexes.
The annexe does not even have to be located close to the courtroom, RTS Communications has the background and experience to feed the audio and video over secure networks.
This picture illustrates a media annexe, which was split in half to cater for press and the general public. Multiple monitors displayed images from the courtroom, including camera feeds to watch the proceedings, evidence and video conference links. This facility was a temporary installation that ran for 7 months.
The Princess Diana Inquest
RTS Communications has been recognised in The Legal Technology Journal (Issue 10 Aug 2008) for our considerable work on the Diana, Princess of Wales inquest. It was stated that...
“The annexe comprised a semi-permanent structure erected in the main quadrangle of the Royal Courts of Justice. It was kitted out with comfortable seating, heating and air conditioning. RTS supplied and fitted a number of large screens on which proceedings were displayed. The annexe was designated an extension of the court, to which rules of court behaviour and conduct applied and so the prohibition contained in the Contempt of Court Act on broadcasting proceedings did not apply to their transmission to the annexe, situated as it was within the confines of the court building.
Transmission of proceedings to the annexe worked well; in fact in many ways it provided a much clearer and intimate way of monitoring proceedings than sitting in the public gallery in Court 73 itself. The technology also provided a simple and easy method of preserving the anonymity of serving and former officers of the Secret Intelligence Service (or ‘MI6’). The coroner was keen, however, to permit the public to follow this evidence and so it was transmitted in audio form only to the court annexe.
These arrangements worked well, greatly assisted by technicians from RTS to ensure proceedings transmitted to the annexe were focused on whoever was speaking, be it coroner, counsel or witness.”
