A project to improve the audio and video technology in Kalispell Municipal Court was put out for bid on Wednesday.

“We’re really just bringing the courtroom up to modern standards,” Judge Heidi Ulbricht said about the project.

“This should make us ready to go in the future with presentation of digital evidence and other things that are evolving in courtroom trials and we don’t have a capability to do.”

Among the proposed upgrades are new microphones for the judge, prosecutor, defense and witness stands, all tied into a new recording system and new amplification system.

The project also includes a new hearing assist system that would be available upon request for people who are hard of hearing.

A 70-inch liquid crystal display screen installed in the courtroom would let the judge better video-conference with people in detention in the Flathead County Jail.

Linked with new touch-screen devices for witnesses, the judge and prosecuting and defense attorneys, that screen also would be used to help with the presentation and consideration of evidence.

A 22- to 24-inch screen outside the courtroom would display the day’s docket.

Also in the audio and video project are a number of equipment racks, switches, mixers, cables and controls.

Bids for the project will be accepted until 2:30 p.m. April 5. The winning bidder will be asked to install and test all of the equipment and train Kalispell Municipal Court staff on its use.

Estimated to cost upwards of $50,000, funding for the project will come at least in part from a $250,000 grant from U.S. Department of Justice. That grant also is paying to renovate and improve security in the Kalispell Public Safety Building where the court is located on First Avenue East.

That renovation work is ongoing, and includes heating and cooling upgrades paid for by grants from U.S. Department of Energy and Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Any extra money that may be needed for the audio and video upgrades would come from money raised by a $10 court security and technology surcharge that convicted defendants pay.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.