Extron provides AV over IP control for hybrid learning in UNCW

'Veterans Hall', the new building of the University of North Carolina – Wilmington (Us.), it has flexible spaces for active and hybrid learning thanks to the deployment of Extron ControlScript and your NAV system.

Those responsible for the University of North Carolina – Wilmington (UNCW) have opted for a solution AV over IP, compared to the traditional system of large cabinets with independent switching and control matrices, to meet active and hybrid learning requirements in your new, larger building, called Veterans Hall.

To do this, UNCW established the use of a NAV system of Extron with which he eventually expanded six floors, with 205 target points connected to a single NAVigator. Due to the need for unique and flexible systems, the system was also deployed ControlScript from this manufacturer.

One of the advantages of ControlScript has been to use the value name of the object button for dictionaries and help functions to create variable names, which were also flexible and reusable by the building's numerous control systems.

the second function that extron controlscript offers is to establish network communication between the control processors and create a client-server relationship between the classrooms and the central control room.

The last piece of the puzzle was learning how to use the so-called event decorator in ControlScript, for which a new data object was created, functionally a variable that can produce a button-like event that is being pressed when its value changes.

This allowed the client-server code to update variables as needed and, below, the event code will make changes to the functionality of the system without having to load all possible options into the handler ReceiveData of the network communication block.

With these pieces in place, the control room of the Veterans Hall, with a maximum of three technicians, now had the ability to easily monitor nine frequently used classrooms equipped with cameras, Microphones, multiple display devices and, in some cases, an active learning system with TV stations and devices byod Wireless.

Due to the level of care that technicians could offer with this structure, teachers thus had the possibility to focus on teaching instead of worrying about whether the technology would work or not..

However, the nine hybrid classrooms were not the only complicated systems that UNCW needed to put in place in the new building. There were also two conference rooms; a training lab with numerous student computers that needed to connect to the room's AV system; a rehabilitation laboratory that required complete switching between eight inputs and four outputs, and another of anatomy, with five units of digital corpses, that had to be routed to two videowall.

In all these cases, the code base used for panel navigation and the control of the NAV system that holds it remained the same. In the case of the control room, the anatomy laboratory and the rehabilitation laboratory, ControlScript also helped create a feedback valuable for end customers by using a mix of dynamic text and up to four different button states and colors to indicate current operation.

Without the flexibility of Extron ControlScript, av systems Veterans Hall would not have been able to operate with the simplicity and versatility that UNCW needed. Dynamic variables, object-oriented programming, ingenious use of the GUI and code interconnections, and access to event handlers and the client-server role on a tcp/ip network have been factors that have contributed to the building system functioning optimally.

UNCW has continued to benefit from ControlScript in other projects, including the updating of control rooms for distance education, a remodeling of a hall divisible into three sections, the audio control system of the basketball hall, a computer lab for post-production and a new 4K digital cinema.

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