SMCCD School Standardizes Its AV Solutions with Crestron

To simplify existing technology and optimize the experience of students and teachers, the SMCCD bet on AV solutions Crestron for classrooms, conference rooms and auditoriums.

After other projects previously carried out with Crestron, the SMCCD decided to bet on its AV solutions again. This time to implement them in classrooms, conference rooms and auditoriums. The goal was to standardize all the spaces, with easy-to-use solutions that can be easily expanded to the entire campus.

San Mateo Community College (SMCCD) is a district made up of three universities that serves more than 31.000 students with campuses from San Francisco to San Jose, in silicon valley. The first two years offer training in a wide variety of undergraduate and transfer programs, as well as vocational-technical programs.

Alexis Arreola, IT construction project specialist, and Yoseph Demissie, Director of IT Support Services at the SMCCD, they wanted to simplify technology in classrooms and create an easy-to-use experience for students and teachers.

In order to reduce the number of equipment in your conference rooms, the SMCCD found that Crestron Flex M-Series the perfect solution, because they provide great audio and video quality in calls, and the wireless presentation capabilities of AirMedia allow content sharing, both in conference rooms and in classrooms.

“All of our teachers have used wireless presentation in their classes and shared incredible feedback on their ease of use”, explains Arreola. “They used to struggle with systems if they forgot their dongle, but AirMedia has eliminated those complications”.

With a variety of training programs, each classroom is built slightly differently to support different pedagogical styles. Regardless of the provision, the core of each room is based on a presentation system DigitalMedia and a Crestron touchscreen on the lectern. The SMCCD has been able to deploy consistent technologies in all of its classrooms, and with the platform AV Framework those facilities have been smoother than ever, as it streamlines the configuration of each room and maintains a familiar user experience for teachers and students.

For certain active learning spaces, the SMCCD has deployed Crestron endpoints DM NVX AV-over-IP to gain advanced content sharing capabilities. Students can break up into groups and project the screen to collaborate with the entire class. DM NVX has provided more flexibility to run content, whether from one classroom to another or from a classroom to the cafeteria.

“Crestron DM NVX is a reliable system that offers unlimited capabilities. In addition, we know that its update, expansion and evolution will be simple if we need to replace the hardware", says Andrew Jones, Vice President of Sales, Rahi Systems Computer Science and Educational Technologies.

On Skyline campuses, Arreola and Demissie partnered with Rahi Systems to install DM NVX AV-over-IP technology for flexible content distribution in a large event space.

Rahi Systems designed a custom user interface that was as intuitive as possible for its new Skyline space.

“The DM NVX product line provides our team with the versatility to create a custom user interface for our customers”, explains Kyle Prescott, Director of Engineering at Rahi Systems. “Other solutions are limited with the switching that occurs in the background, but DM NVX gives us unlimited flexibility”.

With two videowalls, in configuration 4×4, Crestron DM NVX provides an easy-to-use system that allows SMCCD to host and operate private parties and corporate events without bringing in third-party resources. Event space is a destination with wide views of the Pacific Ocean and state-of-the-art content distribution that can be customized for any event.

Across campus, both students and administrators have enjoyed the simplicity of a single user interface. Regardless of the app, Crestron has enabled SMCCD to achieve its goal of delivering a seamless technology experience without disrupting the design elements of space.

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