Extron Provides AV Switching to the University of Manchester

Pure AV has worked alongside the university's IT team to design the AV systems, an infrastructure based on the Extron, including matrix switches, Audio DSP, control systems and an AVoIP NAV solution.

The switching systems, Extron AV Distribution and Control, connected by the professional AVoIP NAV system, have provided the flexibility, The performance and scalability the university required for reliable delivery of content to and from each of the connected rooms on campus.

The University of Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) in the UK provides a wide variety of research spaces, learning and meeting for more than 8.000 Engineering and Science Students.

Two new structures, the nine-storey building A and the five-storey B link with the existing four-storey Oddfellows pavilion. The three main room types include Meet Rooms & Teach (Meeting and Class), Flexible Labs and Workshops, as well as specialized learning spaces such as multipurpose or divisible rooms.

The university required flexible AV switching systems with solid sound and intuitive control for hundreds of flexible learning and teaching spaces.

The Oddfellows Pavilion required an update to adapt to the technologies of the new buildings. All of the MECD rooms needed to be connected to each other and the AV systems also needed to be integrated with the university's resource management system, the GlobalViewer Enterprise (GEV) of Extron.

Pure AV (Pure Audio Visual) located in Preston -England-, worked alongside the university's IT team to design the AV systems. Both spearheaded the integration of a comprehensive selection of Extron products, including professional-grade AV matrix switches, Switches, Audio DSP and Control Systems, and a professional AV over IP NAV system.

Teaching Station

The buildings of the new engineering campus of the MECD have university classrooms with two levels, Four teaching groups, more than 120 Meet rooms & Teach, an interconnected premises consisting of five large teaching areas, individual laboratories and workshops, Divisible university classrooms and a unique multipurpose theatre/dry laboratory.

Meet rooms & Teach have replaced traditional classrooms. The campus includes five buildings, the James Chadwick, York Street and the three connected buildings. The project incorporated approximately 2.200 Learning spaces, meeting and social gatherings in a combined area of about 80.000 square meters.

When deciding on the best space for a particular lesson, instructors can search for rooms based on AV size and capabilities in a room catalog on their website. Photographs of each room and any possible configuration of the space are included, as well as information on the AV equipment provided and the auxiliary and connectivity capacity of the room.

Meet rooms & Teach include a projector Panasonic of 10.000 lumens and a Sapphir display, one or more capture systems for Kaptivo whiteboards, interactive white and Video Walls LG.

Panasonic wall and trolley display devices increase visibility in medium and large spaces, with portable display devices connected via HDMI.

Room fonts can incorporate combinations of one or more computers, A document camera, PTZ and network cameras, Multiple microphones and AV connectivity for wired and wireless devices.

These and medium-sized rooms provide a XTP system or an AV switching system Fixed configuration, with an appropriately sized switch or matrix, depending on the size of the room and the resources available.

The sound system in the room is based on processors ProDSP of Extron, such as the DMP audio processor 128 Plus with AEC, VoIP and Dante, To manage the mix of program audio and microphones.

For AV system control, Each room has been equipped with a Link Pro IP Control Processor that works with networked button panels NBP 106 D and the TouchLink Pro touchscreens to provide intuitive control of all system functions.

AVoIP Pro NAV System

To connect each room of the MECD to the rest of the campus spaces, Pure AV has integrated an Extron professional AV over IP NAV system.

At the time of installation, this was the largest Extron NAV system created for university education in the UK. Although several products and systems from this manufacturer had been used at the University of Manchester, MECD installation is the first to use a NAV system. AVoIP system includes 186 Destination Points, allowing content to be shared between any number of destinations. This is true even when one or more of the divisible spaces are reconfigured.

Pure AV's design and commissioning teams worked with MECD's IT infrastructure team and Extron engineers to evaluate, On-site check and display a large number of network switches.

The goal was to reach a mutual agreement on the switch that would work best with the NAV encoders and decoders. As the vast majority of network switches worked well with the NAV system, The Media Services team was able to select the switches based on their features and cost.

The Navigator system manager enabled quick and intuitive configuration and control of NAV scaler encoders and decoders over the MECD data network. Integrated with the GVE, Linking Campus Spaces.

The GVE and the professional AVoIP NAV system were combined to provide a secure platform for connecting, View status and control devices from the intuitive web pages of this resource management software. In addition, Alerts were created in the GVE to notify the support team of potential device connection status changes.

This merger of NAVigator and GVE facilitated remote system monitoring and control of professional AVoIP NAV encoders and decoders and rooms throughout the MECD.

Switching systems, Extron AV Distribution and Control, connected by the professional AVoIP NAV system, offered the flexibility, The performance and scalability the university required for reliable delivery of content to and from each of the connected rooms on campus. Designed as a result of the collaboration between Pure AV and the university's technical and academic teams, the MECD continues to meet and even exceed student expectations, Staff and Administration.

"We have created first-class, inspiring and highly flexible teaching in a research environment that transforms the way the university educates engineers and materials experts for the future.", explains the professor Martin Schröder, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester.

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