Campus wide seminar room renovation
Project:
Overview
The University recently underwent a campus wide project to renovate 80 of its classroom and seminar spaces. They wanted to improve the style, aesthetics and overall quality of their learning facilities across site to help meet the University’s long term vision and introduce lecture capture systems to improve the quality of online content and facilitate remote working for students.
As part of this project, we approached TOP-TEC to help propose a new audio visual lectern solution for installation into the new spaces. The University were looking to upgrade on their current lecterns and required something that was more fit-for purpose, stylish, easy to use and able to accommodate all of their AV/IT equipment for this installation.
The University's requirements were broken down into 4 Key Features we needed to deliver in the project:
Key Features
- Help improve the overall look, style and feel of the learning facilities across the campus to meet the University’s long term vision.
- Implement and improve the lecture capture systems within the new spaces.
- Develop an easy to use workstation that could integrate all of the University’s preselected IT equipment whilst keeping the footprint to a minimum.
- The Furniture solution must be durable and also economical to meet the University’s project and budget requirements.
Decision Process
Following several meetings with the University’s IT department, we outlined the key project objectives and began collaborating with TOP-TEC’s in-house design team to find a suitable solution. It was decided that the Rubi lectern would be the best suited due to its compact nature and the fact that it clearly met their budget requirements.
Alongside integrating all of the University’s pre-selected AV/IT equipment, the footprint needed to be minimised as much as possible. With this in mind the decision was taken to modify the existing compact Rubi lectern design to increase the rack space allowing integration of all the equipment whilst keeping the footprint to an absolute minimum.
Meeting the requirements
We were able to take the Universities key objectives on board and work with them to meet their vision, with each Rubi lectern featuring a sleek and stylish design to perfectly suit the look and feel of new teaching and learning spaces. TOP-TEC were also able to personalise each unit with coloured edge banding to match the University’s branding. This went alongside their logo printed onto the front of the lectern, helping promote the University brand within the new spaces.
The Rubi lecterns are built to last and are manufactured with a strong robust steel construction at TOP-TEC’s HQ in Birmingham. Each unit features internal cable management and drill-resistant locks alongside a 3U open aperture at the front of the lectern to limit the chance of equipment tampering. This in turn helps reduce the number of IT callouts across site. The installation of fit-for-purpose Audio Visual lecterns alongside the integration of new AV systems helped enhance the spaces both from technical and aesthetic perspective. This is especially prevalent with the use of the new lecture capture systems, helping improve the quality of online content for students and facilitate remote learning for out-of-class learners.
The lectern’s compact design helped minimise the footprint and maximise the floor space within each classroom and seminar area. TOP-TEC were able to take the required AV/IT equipment, fit it into the compact lectern and then tailor the size of the rack space and exterior panels. This ensured all of the equipment could be effectively integrated, resulting in an all-in-one clean and tidy solution with internal cable management.
We also worked alongside TOP-TEC to customise the worktops to the exact requirements of the customer and were able to take all of the equipment and create an easy to use and efficient workstation for tutors. Tutors can either use the same University PCs that are integrated into each unit across site for consistency, or they can bring their own devices (BYOD) and simply plug in via the Kramer AD ring and be ready to go, helping save time at the start of lessons.
Partners
The Result
The University of Sunderland are delighted with the 80 brand new seminar rooms, now equipped with upgraded AV/IT technology which can be effectively delivered through the use of the customised TOP-TEC Rubi lecterns. As well as the University's IT Kit, the lecterns are home to the Kramer VP440X and PA120Hz amplifier as well as the Mersive Solstice Pod which powers the BYOD functionality and the Crestron MPC-302 which gives central control of the system. Clevertouch interactive touchscreens complete the system and the university are really benefitting from the use of the new collaborative technologies.
Furthermore, the university is now more able to facilitate hybrid and remote learning for students thanks for the upgraded technology in the new space, making it much easier for tutors to use the lecture capture systems. This tool allows lessons to be recorded or streamed as videos, making them available on the university’s portal for students to watch anywhere and anytime.
Overall, the University are really excited about the seminar rooms across the St Peter Campus and City Campus which allow for a more active learning environment with a new fresh and stylish look.
Client Feedback
“The University of Sunderland has worked for many years in partnership with Roche AV and TOP-TEC on design, installation, support and maintenance of our AV solutions throughout our campuses. With such an important and large-scale AV refresh project, Roche AV have worked collaboratively, professionally, and tirelessly with all project stakeholders, helping drive this complex campus wide project forward. They have delivered on our agreed AV standards within the project timeline, delivering an enhanced user experience within our general teaching and learning spaces for students and staff alike.”
- Jason Marshall, IT Services Manager, University of Sunderland.
