An International Landmark

Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre - Extension

Architect: Skidmore Owings & Merrill & Wong & Ouyang

Ward Sellars was the Principal in all three disciplines - Acoustics, Audiovisual and Telecommunications. Ward had day-to-day responsibility for the many systems and infrastructure going into this ultra-modern facility in Hong Kong, including a high bandwidth Telecommunication and Data system, computerized digital audio paging and announcement control, large screen video and data projection for audiences of over 4500 persons, and acoustical control measures for high-volume occupied spaces. Integration of the audio and video systems with the telecommunications network was an integral feature of this project - full bandwidth video and audio can originate or be sent to any of the over 5000 CAT-5 UTP and 1100 Fibre-Optic outlets throughout the facility. Mr. Sellars specified and implemented a large PBX (Nortel Meridian Option 81C), which included wireless extensions and ISDN capability. The value of the Acoustics, A/V & Telecom systems designed under Mr. Sellars supervision exceed US$15 Million. This was the location for the hand-over of sovereignty between Britain and China, and Press and Broadcasting provisions are extensive. It was also the site of the IMF/World Bank 1997 Annual meeting and the WTO Meetings in 2005. The building is currently the largest 100% EIA/TIA 568A compliant building in Hong Kong.

Ward wrote a cover story in the November 1997 Issue of Sound and Video Contractor magazine. The PDF of that story, with many details about the design are embedded in this Evernote link: https://www.evernote.com/l/ADEDLg-tKHVJS4daTjbY0pRwpDfx391qDzc/