Hybrid Learning
Our latest project at the university involved creating a sophisticated yet reliable AV solution for their main lecture theatre seating 240 people. The equipment needed to help the university deliver its first hybrid teaching environment, with the ability for lectures to be recorded for the benefit of remote learners and those needing to watch lectures in their own time.
With the theatre’s usage including corporate events and prominent speakers as well as educational lectures, the kit needed to offer a mix of benefits, including ease of use, high performance and 100% reliability.
The fact that the technology would be used out of office hours – on evenings and at weekends – added to the need for a system that event organisers could always count on.
To really maximise the system’s audio performance, we worked from architectural drawings, overlaying two audio heat maps to measure each system’s coverage and allow for any delay requirements. As a result, sound quality and intelligibility are both of the highest level.
This tailor-made system also features hidden lectern-based microphones, plus five wireless microphones for lapels and five hand-held microphones.
These provide ample coverage for speakers and presenters while also allowing for audience participation. Meanwhile, state-of-the-art Extron technology gives individuals full control over PCs, projectors, visualisers and audio from a single control panel.
The entire installation was completed in just three days, and that included work at another university site. The university’s Desktop and Media Services Manager, Mujib Rahman, explained,
“Just as we expected from IDNS, there were no challenges at all when it came to installation. The team were great, performing careful pre-checks and creating a useful schematic to work from. We knew from experience that IDNS go beyond, and this job was no exception.”
The new system is streamlined and discreet, taking just ten minutes to set up and eliminating the old system’s complex and fault-prone configuration of equipment and wires. Livestreaming is also extremely easy and dependable via Microsoft Teams – another nod to the package’s superb flexibility and the futureproofing that comes from that.
And the end results? One year on, the new system is delivering everything the University of Bedfordshire asked for. In fact, it has become the institution’s flagship system, making this particular lecture theatre the most desirable teaching and events space on the Luton campus.
