Post #3 in a series
You've come to Barton Springs Pool, bathing suit and towel in hand. You enter through the restored historic Rotunda.
Below is a room-by-room inventory of the audio-visual and IT hardware built into the Rotunda, the adjoining exhibit hall, and the Beverly S. Sheffield Education Center — drawn directly from the exhibit designer's 2023 equipment schedule.
The known price tag for the exhibits — the equipment, design, fabrication, and installation — totaled at least $750,000, though the total cost is unknown.
- Barton Springs Conservancy — $384,000 (private philanthropic dollars)
- Watershed Protection Department (Salamander Fund) — $291,000 (public dollars)
- Water Department — $75,000 (public dollars)
Source Note
This inventory is drawn from a single sheet in the construction document set for the Zilker Metro Park Barton Springs Bathhouse Rehabilitation (City contract CSP 6100 CLMB341 / CIP 6066.035): sheet WF15.2, titled “Splash! Interpretive Experience — Audio Visual/Information Technology Inventory Draft,” prepared by the exhibit design firm FD2S Inc. (Austin, TX) and dated April 26, 2023, as part of the “100% Construction Design Intent Document” set. It is explicitly labeled a draft — a design-phase budget estimate, not a confirmed as-purchased invoice. Actual equipment and pricing may have changed by the time of installation.
Source: CSP_6100_CLMB341_PLANS_v1.pdf.
The three sections below follow the order a visitor moves through the building: into the Rotunda first, then the adjoining exhibit hall, then the Beverly S. Sheffield Education Center classroom space.
1. The Rotunda
Three installations, totaling $55,887 in listed hardware.
Bulkhead Projection Surface (AV-R3) — $37,156. A Christie D20HD-HS large-venue laser projector with a Christie 0.84–1.02:1 zoom lens, driven by a dedicated Windows 10 PC. It projects onto what the drawings call a “bulkhead” — a printed graphic wall surface with a designated live-video area built into it.
Digital Scrapbook (AV-R2) — $11,347. An Ideum 43″ inline touchscreen paired with a Windows 10 PC, plus a second, non-touch LG 43UH5F-H digital signage display run by a BrightSign LS424 media player, showing historical photographs and related content.
Video Docent Kiosk (AV-R1) — $7,384. An Ideum 43″ inline touch display with a commercial-grade (24/7-rated) Chromebox for playback, and a handset speaker visitors pick up to hear narrated audio — functioning like an audio-tour stop.
2. The Exhibit Space
Four installations. The individually itemized line items sum to $89,344; the sheet's own section header separately states the exhibit space's hardware total as $167,536. That roughly $78,000 difference isn't explained by anything legible on the sheet — it may reflect cost categories (cabling/infrastructure, engineering, installation labor, additional contingency) not broken out in the itemized rows, or a line item obscured in the drawing. Both figures are reported here as they appear in the source.
“Swim with the Salamanders” (AV-EX3) — $51,981. An 11-panel LG 49VL5G-M video wall (one panel held as a spare), run by three Datapath FX4 4K video-wall decoders and a high-spec Windows 10 PC, with a Microsoft Kinect Azure motion-tracking camera reading visitors' movement, two Crestron ceiling speakers, and a Crestron AMP-X300 amplifier.
“Watershed Model” (AV-EX2) — $26,711. An Epson Pro L1505UHNL large-venue laser projector onto a physical model, an Elo Touch E146266 open-frame touchscreen, a medium-spec Windows 10 PC, a Crestron NVX-360 video extender/receiver pair, and a handset speaker.
“Protection Lands” (AV-EX1) — $7,384. An Ideum 43″ inline touch display, a 24/7-rated commercial Chromebox for playback, and a handset speaker.
“Ceiling Scrim” (AV-EX4) — $3,268. A custom addressable RGB LED lighting installation, an Intel NUC mini-PC for playback, a Crestron pendant speaker, a Crestron AMP-X300 amplifier, and a Crestron relay.
3. The Beverly S. Sheffield Education Center
Two installations, totaling $22,303.
“Curricula-based Display” (AV-ED2) — $20,572. A 55″ Ideum inline touchscreen driven by a full Crestron control-room setup: an NVX-360 video switcher, a 7″ LCD control panel, an HDMI input panel, an AM3200 wireless video input, and a CP4 control processor, plus two ceiling speakers, an amplifier, and a low-spec Windows 10 PC. Relative to its size, this is the single most electronics-dense installation in the building.
“Salamander Aquarium” (AV-ED1) — $1,731. An Elo Touch E146266 23″ display, a BrightSign LS424 media player, and a handset speaker.
Totals
| Space | Hardware total (as itemized) |
| Rotunda | $55,887 |
| Exhibit Space | $89,344 (sheet header states $167,536 — see note above) |
| Sheffield Education Center | $22,303 |
| Combined (itemized figures) | $167,534 |
Across all three spaces, the single most expensive individually-identifiable device is the $51,981 11-panel LG video wall in “Swim with the Salamanders” — the largest hardware commitment of any one exhibit in the building.
