Full Renovation of Lecture Halls in Harold Alfond Center for Health Sciences, as well as renovation of The President’s Boardroom in the George & Barbara Bush Center, and Marcil 318 Specialty Collaboration Classroom
Last fall and part of this winter, we completed a number of lecture hall, boardroom and classroom spaces at UNE – and they are all really cool. The first set of rooms we completed were 4 lecture hall spaces at the Harold Alfond Center for Health Science. The brains behind these rooms is a 32×32 matrix switcher from Crestron, allowing each room to house a PTZ camera, resident PC, bluray player, and laptop, as well as have streaming LAN and PIP capabilities for previewing sources from other locations. Inside each of the rooms there are 2 different displays – 1 screen with a large venue projector and a secondary flat panel for additional content or live stream. The rooms are designed as spillover spaces as well as individual standalone ones, meaning that they can either show all the same content if more space is needed for a presentation or they can be used as individual rooms.
The next space we completed was the Presidents Boardroom in the George & Barbara Bush Center. There is an elaborate Crestron control system in this room as well, which also controls video conferencing and VoIP. The room has an electric screen and descending projector, both which turn on and move to their correct locations on startup commands. There are PTZ cameras and wireless presentation gateways so that guests can both see what is happening in the rooms as well as what is on the device of the person presenting. The PTZ cameras can be used for both the Polycom Videoconferencing and WexEx video conferencing. There is a touch panel on the wall, as well as an iPad for wireless secondary control of the space if needed.
The last space we completed was a classroom – Marcil 318. There is some great technology in this room, but what really makes it unique is the mobile furniture. The seating is on wheels and can be configured in any number of different ways to face specific displays, foster collaboration or individualized instruction. When doing a room like this, it’s best practice to have a few layouts in mind before installing, so that teachers and presenters know their options and aren’t just starting with a messy room full of furniture. Additionally, there are 3 different teacher locations, at which any source in the control system can go anywhere. Sources include a teacher laptop, Apple TV, Airmedia and interactive projector, all which help transform a simple classroom into a true 21st century learning experience.
