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| After five years, the Christopher Center lecture hall remains one of the most popular rooms on campus, providing a high-tech teaching environment. The room includes a ceiling-mounted projector, custom-built podium, and a sound system that provides audioconferencing capabilities. Click for more photos of the lecture hall. |
It's been almost five years since Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois, threw open the doors to its Christopher Center Lecture Hall, hoping its clean lines and cutting edge technology would make it a showcase among its peers. They have not been disappointed. In a world where that "cutting edge" is anything but static, the audio visual technology incorporated into this room by Sound Vision, Inc., makes it one of the most popular teaching and presentation rooms on campus.
"We really haven't come up with anything this room can't do," says Dennis Witte, Concordia's Vice President for Administration and IT instructor. "We wanted a teaching facility that would be media rich and provide a presenter with a full variety of tools for their lecture or class. When you're teaching potential teachers, or you're in seminar with experienced teachers, you want to show them the best available tools."
The 100-seat lecture hall boasts a motorized screen, Sanyo ceiling-mounted projector, custom built podium with AMX touch panel, document camera, laptop input, internet connection, microphone, DVD/VHS players and audioconferencing capabilities. Zoned wall and ceiling speakers provide presentation audio reinforcement that can be controlled at different levels throughout the room, and conduit exists for surround sound should the school choose to upgrade. An equipment rack in a small locked closet behind the podium holds the amplifier, switcher and other support equipment.
Plan for the future
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| The podium puts a laptop connection, document camera, DVD, VCR and the room's control system at the instructor's fingertips. |
An audio visual system that passes the test of time doesn't come without study and input from a variety of sources. A small group of faculty members shared their ideas with an AV consultant who came up with a design for the lecture hall and five classrooms that would meet the needs of both present and future.
"Every presenter's a little different," says Witte. "Some are high tech and some are low tech. A couple members of our planning committee were very low tech and they wanted to make sure this would work for every faculty person." Some presenters, says Witte, still lecture from a stack of notes, using only the microphone. Others walk in, plug in their laptops and have a command of the technology instantly. There's even an option that allows someone with a password and a laptop to take control of the audio visual system and operate it from a seat in the audience, should a presenter prefer that option. "That's a great feature," says Witte. "In the middle of a presentation sometimes the audio gets a little hot, or you want to adjust the lighting. It's nice to be able to sit out in the room and do that without interrupting the speaker."
Cut costs, not quality
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| Equipment rack in a closet outside the lecture hall holds sound, control and audioconferencing system components. |
Before beginning the install, Sound Vision's Tom Allison did some value engineering aimed at saving a few dollars without changing the quality of the project. It was Allison's suggestion to use an AMX control system. "The original system would have required the college to invest in additional servers and other equipment to put it on the network," says Allison. "With AMX we didn't have to do that. It's a completely network friendly solution." The system they installed also made it possible for Sound Vision to customize the user interface to the university's needs and still make it intuitive and easy to use. The touch panel embedded in the podium is very easy to understand. A simple touch of a button will turn on the projector and sound system, lower the screen, dim the lights, and close the window shades.
"The consultant did fine work, but you can usually find a less expensive screw driver and that's what we did," says Allison. "We were able to find other products or methods of installation that produced the same or equal result but provided some cost savings."
Allison says Sound Vision is especially good at matching a particular job with what the industry has to offer. "Every day we're challenged with a new project. We look at what's in the marketplace and try to match it with our customer's functional requirements," says Allison. "We also look at what the client could possibly add in the future and consider the budget carefully. We have to juggle all three of those things constantly."
Sound Vision also believes preventive maintenance goes a long way to increasing a system's longevity. Other than the one time repair of a video processor, there has been little but routine maintenance on the lecture hall system, mostly changing projector lamps. To save lamp hours, Sound Vision engineers programmed the control system to keep an eye on lamp usage. "If an instructor mutes the video and then leaves the room, after a certain amount of time the system shuts off the projector," says Allison. It would have been possible to set a failsafe shutoff time, but Jim Kosinsky, Concordia's Media Director, was reluctant to use that feature.
"We do have events that sometimes go into the early morning hours," says Kosinsky. "I don't want to set an auto shutoff at 1:00 am if somebody's still using the room. Instead, if there's no signal going to the projector for, say, 15 minutes, it will start a five minute countdown and shut down."
Go with what you know
The larger the system the more options Sound Vision builds in for expansion and upgrades. "The fact of the matter is you can't do a lot about obsolescence," says Kosinsky. "You need to implement what you have access to. This is a fairly flexible system. Our faculty relies on their laptops for a lot of presentations. Those laptops have been upgraded, but VGA cables are still a standard means of distribution for the video signal. It's pretty easy for us to come in with newer equipment and integrate it into that room."
At one point in the planning, the university considered installing low voltage cable to connect classrooms, but Sound Vision discouraged them. "Things were moving toward category-based cabling and Ethernet solutions," says Allison. "It's always better to suggest that a customer not do something when the potential is there to have it backfire."
Of course, you can't always predict the future. "There are a couple of things that, if we knew then what we know now we might have done differently," says Kosinsky. "But overall it's served us well and continues to do so."
Sometimes it's the little things.
Although the rack holding the switcher, amplifiers, and other support equipment is locked away in a closet, Sound Vision installed a VCR, DVD player and document camera in the podium where anyone can reach them. "We installed cylinder locks in the podium at the university's request," says Allison, and that's been enough to keep the conveniently-placed equipment secure. "If somehow a key was lost they could change out the cylinders just like you do on a class room doorway," he adds. "They wanted the beefier, upgradeable locks in the lectern, which was custom built to match the room's natural beech veneer." Laptops are the norm, but a spot was built in to the lectern to house a permanent PC, including a keyboard tray.
Sound Vision also put a custom teaching station in each of the five classrooms equipped with AV systems at the Christopher Center. "We decided against a physical podium for the classrooms," says Witte, "because it creates separation between the instructor and the class. Good teaching is when you are engaged with the students and interacting with them, not standing behind a podium." The teaching station is a flat topped rectangular cabinet that sits off to the side at the front of the classroom, but still provides access to a document camera, laptop input and sources for the classroom projector. Although much more basic than the lecture hall, the AV systems in the classrooms are just as popular. "These are our faculty's favorite rooms on campus," says Witte. "Even with the low tech configuration, they're real easy to use."
Five years of lectures and lessons have not diminished the faculty's enthusiasm for the Christopher Center's technology. It opened new avenues of teaching for those less traveled in technology. The lecture hall is indeed the showcase Concordia had hoped for. "We're five years later now and it's still a wonderful system," says Kosinsky. "We feel really good about Sound Vision. They did a great job. We all did a good job working together to get this thing right. I wish we had more rooms like it."
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