I too was at the trials, there is a second group of trials in 2 weeks on October 5th.
WRT AC premium checkin, there will be a combined checkin area for USA and International, it will be similar to YYZ domestic in that restriction for access at the front door. The glass will be frosted by next week, then a seating area and small plants installed to make a homey feel. On the other side of premium checkin is special assistance. AC checkin is the closest to Marriott and old terminal, as well as closest to the covered walkway to/from the parkade.
Just like YVR and YYZ, the next area is preboard security. This is the only area that requires modification prior to opening. The airport is rushing the installation of glass wall partitions so that D security will be physically partitioned from E security. Glass walls looked like they will be installed by next week.
I don't know about D security, but E security trusted traveler lanes has an Epic fail. The door for trusted travelers is on the east side of the hall. I confirmed with CATSA that lanes 13 and 14 will be used for Nexus security. However the Global Entry lanes for USCBP are installed on the west side of USCBP primary inspection. Therefore trusted travelers will have to traverse the length of the USCBP primary inspection terminal. Priceless was the look on the construction managers face when I pointed out the pax flow issue.
The divest station for preboard security xray machines is as described above. 5 travelers stand shoulder to shoulder to fill grey bins (smaller than the white bins used at checkpoint C but larger than grey bins used by the Americans). Issue is that your divest station will only fit two bins at once. The only way to get a third bin is to place the previous bin on the conveyor belt that leads to the xray machine. Problem is that if you need three bins your first bin is going to get separated from the last two because other travelers are divesting upstream of you. Also, if you are at the farthest divest station from the xray machine there is a wait for the bins while people downstream take additional bins. Overall CATSA will have to change their processes to get everyone to adhere to the 2 bins per traveler set up.
No more blue USCBP forms to fill out. All travelers must use the APC kiosks. There are plenty of airport customer care ambassadors to help out the technology challenged.