Education over IP

With 52 A/V rooms of varying sizes spread over a large site, Georgetown University in Doha could have been a significant challenge for any systems integrator. The client had a specific design which would enable multiple rooms across the site to be connected via video conferencing and external links to its main US campus. The remit was for an A/V system that would mirror its parent university in Washington DC and an IP-based network that would allow video conferencing across the whole site as well as with the US.

Taking up this challenge was local systems integrator Modern Home. ‘The design was sent out by the main contractors and we bid for the package as it was,’ explains Victor Bitar, the company’s professional electronics division design and solution department manager. ‘What we have done with the Georgetown A/V manager and IT team is to reflect what they need within the contract.’ This means that while there are a large number of rooms that require an A/V setup, the system itself is a standard design across the site with only a few adjustments to meet individual rooms.

The scope of the project took in the 350-seat auditorium, 120-seat lecture hall, a number of 50- and 30-seat classrooms, as well as various seminar rooms, conference rooms, study rooms, training facilities, common areas and a master control room.

The design called for a range of brands across the site and required Modern Home to source equipment from a number of companies. ‘As per the specification and tender documents we used some of the brands that we are also the distributor for, such as AMX, Bose, Extron, Tandberg, Wolfvision, Yamaha, Sennheiser, Biamp, Dalite, and Christie,’ says Mr Bitar.

The system in each of the rooms has been designed around video conferencing. ‘The main purpose of it is broadcasting lectures between the different A/V rooms which are interconnected all together through the A/V master control room, moreover lectures can be shared with the main campus in Washington DC via video conferencing,’ explains Mr Bitar. ‘Some of the classrooms also have video conferencing capabilities.’ Modern Home’s senior site engineer, Prem Kumar adds: ‘In video conferencing mode, the default camera is on the podium where the lecturer is, and whichever of the cameras you want can be selected. There are three options, the podium camera focuses on the audience, the screen camera looks at the whole room, and the main camera focuses on the podium.

‘They have their own internal link to all the classrooms, or if they want to connect outside the university, they can dial out too. It’s all IP-based – they have a very good, secure network,’ he continues. ‘When you call another classroom you can see the room on screen, the lecturer can send the PC from their location so that the students can all see it in the other room – whatever the lecturer types or whichever Powerpoint slide he calls up, they can see it on the screens at the far end. This increases the number of students who can listen to the lecture.’

The conferencing setup includes Tandberg HD cameras, Sennheiser desktop and boundary mics, Sony LCD TVs, Bose ceiling speakers, Da-Lite motorised screens and Panasonic projectors.

While the conferencing equipment is distributed around the room, the majority of the technology for the lecturer is housed in the podium. This custom designed unit houses an Audio-Technica gooseneck mic, a Wolfvision document camera, Extron scalers and switchers, a Furman power conditioner, a Sony DVD player, a networked Dell PC, and an external port for further inputs, such as an iPod or a laptop. ‘We designed the podium in coordination with the Georgetown team and showed the main contractors what we needed with the dimensions for the equipment. The contractors made a sample piece and got it approved by the client then made all the units to this design,’ explains Mr Kumar. The podiums are divided into movable sections for the various pieces of equipment and the entire back panel is hinged to enable easy access. ‘There are 21 podiums – one for each room and one spare, so if there is a problem then they can bring the spare in, plug it in and use it,’ says Mr Kumar.

Perhaps the most important tool in the podium is the AMX control system with wireless touch panel which gives the lecturer full control of everything in the room. ‘On the touchscreen we have the options of audiovisual presentation, PC, DVD, and the document camera,’ says Mr Kumar. ‘You also have all the camera controls from the podium. There is a default mode so if you want you can come back to that if you change the camera settings. If someone is new to the system and they don’t know what to do they can press the original settings and it will come to the original position,’ he explains. ‘Here the professors just teach and they don’t know how much they can use the system. They are familiar with the basic things for the A/V system – the lighting control and shades - but the lecturer is in control of the whole room.’

Each room also has its own dedicated rack to supplement the system. As well as further AMX, Furman and Extron equipment, the rack also covers the audio system in the room with sound processing from Biamp and Cloud amplifiers.

Being a networked system, each of the rooms is connected to a central master control room via twisted pair transmitters and receivers from Extron. From this location all of the A/V rooms can be monitored and controlled. ‘There are two touchscreens and from here they can control and monitor all the rooms,’ says Mr Kumar. ‘There is room monitoring software from AMX – they can see if a projector is on or off, and if somebody has forgotten to switch it off, they can do that from here,’ he explains. ‘There is also Tandberg management software so they can manage the video conferencing for the entire network. It is connected to the central Georgetown IT server.’

Using this software, the control room manages the distribution of video conference signals around the campus over IP via an infrastructure comprising Extron and Sommer cables. ‘All of the rooms have a transmitter and a receiver, so they can send a presentation or video to the master control room, and vice versa,’ explains Mr Bitar. ‘From here you can take a presentation from one room and send it to another room.’

Another important part of the installation was future-proofing the university. To enable this, a number of the rooms have been fitted with connections to increase their A/V capabilities in the future. ‘We put extra connectors in so people could add equipment, such as an LCD TV or videoconferencing cameras, in the future,’ says Mr Kumar. ‘All the cables are there already and everything has been terminated to the rack. They wanted future-proofing mostly for the TVs, but in the classrooms for the cameras also. We pulled the camera cables so they just need to plug in.’

One of the most interesting aspects of the project has been installing the main auditorium. With 350 seats to cover, this is the largest of the rooms and its installation involved a variety of equipment on top of that used in the standard design. Included is a Beyerdynamic translation system supporting three foreign languages, a 30,000 lumens Christie HD30K projector, an audio mixing desk from Yamaha and a video mixer from Panasonic.

Also put to use in the auditorium, as well as the lecture theatre, are ambient noise sensing Audio-Technica mics, which are hung from the ceiling. ‘These pick up the level of ambient noise from the audience to increase or decrease the volume from the lecturer,’ explains Mr Kumar. ‘It uses automatic gain control to get the feedback from the ambient noise. There is no need for the lecturer to fiddle with the volume control every time.’

To supplement the Bose ceiling speakers, two Tannoy QFlex 32 array speakers and a pair of the manufacturer’s subs have been installed at the front of the auditorium. ‘In the basic design there was nothing as front speakers, but at the later stage with co-ordination from Georgetown, we decided to add them,’ says Mr Bitar.

The project at Georgetown has been very client led with an exacting design to match its US campus. This has created obvious advantages for the university as it is able to connect the two sites, and in turn will show benefits for its students and the education they receive. While having such a client led project can prove challenging, if the system design is good and all parties involved are flexible enough to overcome onsite issues it can also be a positive experience. This has certainly been the case with Georgetown, where Modern Home has built a networked system that meets all of its needs and will provide the Doha campus with a solid A/V foundation.

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