How Efficient IS replaced the AV system in Falkirk Council’s Committee Chamber — a wireless conference and electronic voting system, intelligent auto-tracking cameras and live streaming to YouTube — delivered on time for a set of emergency meetings the Council could not postpone.
The Committee Chamber on completion. Delegate positions run the length of both tables, each with a touchscreen discussion unit and gooseneck microphone. Wall displays sit at either end with a camera position alongside, and acoustic absorber panels line both side walls.
Falkirk Council serves 160,000 residents and is represented by 30 elected councillors. With its permanent building under construction and due to open in 2027, the Committee Room is where the Council conducts all of its formal business in the meantime — and it’s in use most weeks of the year, with almost no window in which it can be out of service.
In 2025 the Council judged its existing AV provision no longer fit for that purpose and went to competitive tender through Public Contracts Scotland for a modern, fully integrated system capable of supporting a multi-functional environment and hybrid meeting formats. The brief required a system that would:
The deadline was set by the business of the Council, not by the project plan. In early 2026 Falkirk was required to convene emergency meetings on international issues affecting energy supply and costs for residents — and the room had to be operational in time.
Falkirk published its requirement through Public Contracts Scotland. Efficient IS bid a specific solution rather than a menu of options: a Vissonic wireless microphone and conference system paired with Avonic intelligent PTZ cameras — the same combination we already operate and maintain for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) at their Judicial Institute.
Specifying that precisely in a bid only works if the claim can be checked. Falkirk Council carried out its own due diligence and arranged a site visit to SCTS, where its representative saw the system in live operation and spoke directly to the people who use it every week. That visit was decisive in the award.
“One of the reasons we were comfortable working with Efficient IS was their track record with other public sector organisations. Knowing they understood our environment and had delivered similar projects elsewhere gave us confidence in their ability to deliver for Falkirk Council.”
James Mathieson · Head of Transformation, Communities & Corporate Services · Falkirk Council
We bid a specific solution, not a shopping list of options — we were confident enough in it to send the Council to see it running at the Judicial Institute and talk to the people who use it every week. Once the award was received, we went back through how Falkirk actually runs its meetings — how each committee uses the chamber, where the old system had been failing, and what each function needed to do on the day — and tuned the design to that, rather than installing to the letter of the schedule and handing it over.
Efficient IS designed, supplied, installed and commissioned a complete integrated AV solution for the Council’s Committee Chamber.
A Vissonic DCP2000-W wireless conference processor drives 50 wireless touchscreen discussion units, each with integrated electronic voting and a pluggable gooseneck microphone — one at every delegate position across the room.
4 Avonic CM73-IP-W PTZ cameras, run through a Vissonic camera auto-tracking processor (supporting up to 6 cameras), bring whoever is speaking into shot automatically, with no operator needed.
A TiGHT AV audio DSP unit manages the audio path into Microsoft Teams and out to the public stream, and integrates with the chamber’s existing PA system.
Cameras sit adjacent to the display screens, so a councillor looking at remote attendees is also looking towards the camera — not away from it.
The chamber’s live acoustics were blurring speech for anyone joining remotely or watching the stream. 18 Primacoustic Broadway acoustic panels at the primary reflection points fixed that.
Public meetings stream live to YouTube, with Teams integration and electronic voting available to in-room and remote councillors alike.
Delegate positions are numbered, so the system can tie a microphone and a vote to a seat.
A single position: touchscreen, integrated voting and pluggable gooseneck microphone.
Supply chain conditions in late 2025 and early 2026 made lead times unpredictable on certain components, driven by shipping disruption, typhoon damage to logistics routes and wider geopolitical instability.
We updated the Council on a near-weekly basis on the status of every item. Where equipment had already arrived, installation went ahead, so commissioning could begin the moment the remaining components landed. The Council stayed collaborative throughout, and the project completed on time and on budget in February 2026 — with the room handed over only once the Council’s own team were confident operating it themselves.
Looking the other way down the chamber. The grey absorber panels along both walls are the acoustic treatment that keeps speech intelligible for remote attendees and on the public stream.
Delivered on time and on budget, February 2026 — against a deadline set by the Council’s own emergency meeting calendar.
Councillors reported a marked improvement, with every participant equally visible and audible regardless of seating position.
Camera positioning adjacent to the screens improved engagement for remote attendees joining over Teams.
Live streaming of public meetings to YouTube is fully operational.
A reliable voting mechanism is operational for in-room and remote councillors alike.
Falkirk Council has since commissioned a second Vissonic and Avonic system for a further meeting room, now in delivery.
“Professional installation and excellent value. The system has transformed how we use the room. Happy to recommend EIS to any similar organisation.”
James Mathieson · Head of Transformation, Communities & Corporate Services · Falkirk Council
A second meeting room system is already in delivery. Beyond that, the Council is discussing further phases with us to build on the Chamber’s accessibility and reach:
So hard of hearing members and attendees can take part in council business on equal terms.
Supporting multilingual engagement with residents and attendees.
Private and public voting modes for in-room and remote councillors.
At the core is a wireless or wired delegate conference system — a touchscreen or microphone unit at every seat, tied to that seat for voting and speaker identification — paired with auto-tracking PTZ cameras, a DSP for echo-free audio into platforms like Microsoft Teams, and acoustic treatment so remote attendees and the public stream can actually hear what’s said. Falkirk Council’s Committee Chamber uses a Vissonic conference system with Avonic cameras, the same combination we run for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.
Each delegate position has its own touchscreen unit tied to a numbered seat, so a vote is automatically attributed to the correct councillor. The system can run public and private voting modes, and extend to councillors joining remotely as well as those in the room.
Yes — with a dedicated DSP handling acoustic echo cancellation, the same audio and camera feed can be sent into a Teams meeting for hybrid participation and out to a public livestream simultaneously, without one degrading the other.
It depends on room size and component availability, but the room only needs to be out of service for the installation and commissioning phase itself — Falkirk’s Committee Chamber, in near-constant weekly use, was upgraded and handed over on schedule despite supply chain disruption affecting component lead times.
17 years delivering AV and IT infrastructure for public sector bodies across Scotland — and, as Falkirk did, you’re welcome to see it running and talk to the people who use it.
Scotland Excel Framework 822 holder across Lots 1, 2 and 3, so a future procurement with us needs no full tender process. See our Scotland Excel framework page for details.
ISO 27001 certified, Cyber Essentials accredited and SafeContractor approved, with no product specified before the problem in front of us is fully understood.
This project was also covered by our technology partner and the wider AV trade press:
Our distribution partner on this project published their own case study, crediting the result to “excellent work” from Efficient IS combined with POLAR’s product portfolio. Read POLAR’s case study →
Trade press coverage of the Falkirk Council project. Read the article →
Further trade press coverage from Light & Sound International. Read the article →
Tell us the room, the meeting formats it needs to support and the deadline you’re working to — we’ll tell you what a system like Falkirk’s would look like for you.
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