Extron AV Solutions Enhance Nursing School Learning at Lee University

The nursing school classroom, with the capacity to 120 students, has renovated its AV facilities. Extron has provided AV switching and distribution equipment, control and streaming.

To meet the challenges of COVID19 and support distance learning, AV solutions have been used Extron to make streaming capabilities compatible with the audiovisual system in the spacious classroom of the School of Nursing of the Lee University.

Lee University is a private Christian teaching center located in Cleveland (Tennessee). It was founded in 1918 with twelve students and a teacher by the name of Church of God Bible Training School. Today it is a university that more than 5.200 students and where some work 350 Instructors. Offers 57 Specialties, 159 undergraduate programs and 56 university programs in Business, Arts and Sciences, Education, Music, Religion and Nursing.

in 2016, the nursing school built a spacious university classroom with a soaring roof and desks with staggered seating for more than 120 students. This was equipped with audiovisual services appropriate for such a large space and to respond to the challenges of COVID19 and support distance learning, was enhanced with capabilities for AV streaming.

The facility hosted large meetings for lectures on topics covering nursing procedures, biology and biological sciences.

The design and installation of the AV system was a joint effort between the manager of Lee University's computer technology laboratory., Mark Long, and the professional AV integration firm Encore Broadcast Solutions.

The Encore team was led by Glenn Bradley, sales manager of the Bridgeport office in Alabama. Extron provided the AV switching and distribution equipment, control and streaming for the project.

At the front of the room is a projection screen of 275 Inch, flanked by two 65 flat panel display devices″.

On the back wall are two flat panel reference monitors from 65 Inch. Presenters and audience members use handheld wireless RF microphones. AV system components are housed on the presenter's podium and operator's desk.

Teachers can upload the presentation material to the AV operator's desktop computer or carry a laptop with the material.

In a cable access box Cable Cubby 202, located on the AV operator's desktop, power cable connections are available, HDMI, DisplayPort and USB-C, and on the podium is a touch screen TouchLink Pro TLP Pro 320C in Cable Cubby.

A document camera, located on the podium allows to show the printed materials. Teachers can write down their presentations by playing, typing and drawing on the touch screen. this connects to an annotation processor Annotator 300, located on the AV operator's desktop, through transmitters and receivers USB Extender Plus.

The equipment that forms the backbone of the AV system of the university classroom is located on the av operator's desk.

The main component is a switching matrix with scaler for DTP presentations Crosspoint 84 4K. Performs AV signal switching and video scaling to deliver video content to the five display devices in the room.

Available AV content sources include the operator's desktop computer, a laptop on the podium, the Annotator 300, PTZ cameras on the front and rear wall, and analog audio from the mixer on the operator's desktop.

AV content is selected using a touch screen TouchLink Pro TLP Pro 1022T of 10 inches located on the operator's desk, or the 3.5 folding touch screen″ TLP Pro 320C podium.

The two touchscreens work with the control processor built into the DTP switching matrix to control all system functions.

Audio and video options

The speakers in the room work thanks to the amplifier of 100 W integrated into the array. Multiple wireless microphones are available for the instructor(is) and for student participation.

Most instructors prefer the hanging microphone VoiceLift Pro when presenting because it is very easy to use. This turns on automatically when you get up from the charging station.

The content is displayed on the main projection screen and the two flat screen display devices. The video projector connects directly from the switching array to the HDBaseT input of the projector.

Flat screen display devices receive HDMI by shielded twisted pair cable via a DTP HD DA4 4K distribution amplifier and 4K HDMI DTP receivers 230 Rx.

Capture and stream

AV content can also be routed to the SMP streaming media processor 351 for live or on-demand recording and streaming for distance learners.

Streaming content is delivered through a hardware codec or unified communications platform, like Zoom or Teams.

The SMP 351 is equipped with an CPR remote control panel 101 EU on the operator's desk, providing home buttons, stop, pause and mark.

This panel includes a USB port in which users can insert a memory card to 'capture and take' classes.

Instructors also appreciate that they can initiate themselves., stop and pause the capture of the SMP class 351, by pressing a button on your VoiceLift Pro pendant microphone.

The university classroom reopened its doors to students and faculty in the spring of 2021. They are popular facilities, always in high demand.

The manager of the computer technology laboratory at Lee University, Mark Mong, informs us that the AV systems of the classroom work without any problem. Mark mentions that, with his experience in programming and coding, are totally impressed with the way Extron's Global Configurator Pro and GUI Designer software tools, with just drag and drop, have contributed to the configuration of the AV control system has been so direct.

"Extron driver configuration tools are easy to understand. They allow you to work directly. For this installation, I created the logical flow of control and the hierarchy of the UI screen, and Encore carried out the configuration and creation of the GUI using the Extron tools".

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