Bloomberg Trading Suite at Manchester Met
Award-winning university trading suite and financial markets lab powered by advanced AV integration
Project Overview | Shaping the Future of Finance
A cutting-edge Bloomberg Trading Suite, featuring dual workstations for live market data, trading simulations and Bloomberg certifications. Equipped with industry-leading technology, this dynamic financial trading suite bridges the gap between theory and real-world financial practice at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School.
Designed to function as both a university trading room and simulated dealing room, the space recreates an authentic trading floor (education environment) within a higher education setting.
This project won Best Content Application at the Crestron Integration Awards 2026 and was a finalist at the 2026 inAVation Awards and AV News Awards.
University Bloomberg Trading Suite
Roche AV Pro worked alongside Manchester Metropolitan University to deliver a state-of-the-art Bloomberg trading suite within the Business School.
This purpose-built business school trading suite accommodates up to 70 students at dual Bloomberg-enabled workstations, creating a fully immersive student trading environment. The facility allows students to engage with live financial data, simulate trading scenarios, complete Bloomberg certifications, and develop investment and risk assessment skills in a real-world finance learning space.
The space operates as a financial markets lab and finance lab, supporting experiential learning finance and industry-simulated teaching approaches aligned with modern FinTech and digital finance lab programmes.
Working alongside key partners including Sharp/NEC, PPDS, Crestron and OneMedia — as well as leading audio manufacturers JBL, Sennheiser and Audio-Technica — Roche AV Pro created a high-performance trading lab environment that mirrors professional investment trading floors.
Project Goals
Manchester Metropolitan University aimed to create an advanced finance teaching space that would:
Simulate real-time financial trading using Bloomberg Terminals
Replicate a professional trading floor within a university setting
Analyse live economic and financial data to develop risk assessment skills
Support employability-focused, industry-led learning
Enable seamless, technology-enhanced delivery for lecturers
The objective was to develop a Bloomberg education suite capable of supporting both undergraduate and postgraduate finance programmes while strengthening links between academia and industry.
Trading Suite AV Design & Technology Integration
Designing a university trading suite requires specialist trading suite AV design expertise to ensure that live financial data can be distributed reliably, clearly and without latency.
The suite leverages advanced AV technology to deliver an immersive university trading room and financial data lab environment. At the heart of the space is a fully integrated control room style AV system, built around a Crestron processor and touch panel, enabling intuitive management of complex AV systems.
The installation incorporates a powerful AV-over-IP trading room distribution platform, ensuring that content — whether from a Bloomberg Terminal, lecturer workstation or external device — can be shared seamlessly across multiple displays throughout the suite.
This infrastructure supports:
A multi-screen trading wall
A video wall for trading suite applications
Low-latency content distribution
Flexible lecturer-to-student content routing
While this installation is centred around Bloomberg Terminals, the underlying finance lab AV systems are equally suited to Refinitiv Eikon and other financial data platforms, ensuring future flexibility for evolving course requirements.
USB-C docking integration allows quick device connectivity, maintaining ease of use within this high-performance trading room AV installation.
Display & Visual Environment: Multi-Screen Trading Wall
The suite is equipped with a combination of 75” M751 and 86” M861 Sharp/NEC professional displays.
These high-resolution screens form a dynamic multi-screen trading wall, strategically positioned to provide clear visibility of:
Live Bloomberg feeds
Global market indices
Economic dashboards
Lecturer presentations
Collaborative student outputs
The 75” displays deliver primary instructional content, while the 86” screens act as focal points for group discussion and analysis within this simulated trading room environment.
Crestron AV-over-IP decoders ensure crisp, lag-free performance — critical in a real-time financial trading suite where market data accuracy and clarity are essential.
Audio & Communication Infrastructure
Clear communication is fundamental in any trading floor simulation or finance trading room environment.
The suite features:
A distributed JBL ceiling speaker system
Sennheiser SpeechLine handheld and lapel microphones
Crown amplification
Extron DSP audio processing
This professional-grade audio system ensures speech intelligibility and even coverage throughout the trading lab, allowing lecturers to manage this data-driven teaching space effectively.
Bespoke Vertical Stock Ticker & Financial Data Integration
A standout visual feature is the bespoke vertical LED stock ticker system developed in collaboration with OneMedia.
To meet the university’s design vision, Roche AV Pro re-engineered OneMedia’s standard horizontal ticker into a vertical format, creating a striking focal point reminiscent of professional dealing rooms and real-world trading floors.
The suite features five vertical PPDS LED ticker displays, strategically positioned around the room to display real-time stock market information. Each high-brightness display is powered by a dedicated Onelan digital signage player running a custom Bloomberg application developed by OneMedia.
Working closely with Manchester Metropolitan University, the application was tailored to meet specific design and resolution requirements, ensuring seamless playback within the bespoke vertical format. This process included custom software development, design concept testing, playback optimisation for motion clarity, and the enhancement of live global market data feeds.
The result is a dynamic financial data lab environment that enhances immersion within the student trading space. The innovation has since influenced other university trading suite projects and informed elements of a professional trading floor installation in London.
Watch the video
Supporting FinTech & Employability-Focused Education
Universities are increasingly investing in fintech suites, digital finance labs and industry-simulated learning environments to enhance graduate employability.
This installation supports Manchester Metropolitan University’s commitment to:
Experiential learning finance
Industry collaboration
Real-world finance learning
Student career readiness
By integrating live data, collaborative AV systems and professional-grade infrastructure, the university has created a finance lab that reflects modern investment and trading environments.
The Conclusion
The success of the suite has extended beyond the University. The facility has drawn attention from other institutions and industry professionals, with many visiting the site to explore how similar financial trading suites or university trading rooms could be implemented within their own business schools.
Its reputation as a benchmark for trading suite AV design has influenced other higher education projects — including the University of Central Lancashire — and contributed to the evolution of finance-focused learning environments across the sector.
The suite is fully embedded within Manchester Metropolitan University’s curriculum, enabling students to gain hands-on experience in a professional-standard financial markets lab.
This award-winning trading room AV installation demonstrates how specialist AV integration can transform education spaces into authentic, industry-aligned trading environments.
This project gained industry recognition at the Crestron Europe Integration Awards 2026 picking up Best Content Application at the True Blue awards ceremony in Barcelona.
Partners
Planning a Trading Suite or Financial Markets Environment?
Whether you are developing a university trading lab, a corporate dealing room or a high-performance financial markets space, our team can design and integrate a solution tailored to your requirements.
Speak to Roche AV Pro to discuss your project.
