By Mark R. Mayfield, Special to InfoComm International®

The roots of the AV industry are firmly planted in the K-12 education market, dating back to the formation of the National Association of Visual Education Dealers (NAVED) in 1939. Back then, classroom AV technology consisted of film strip projectors, screens and eventually basic audio equipment and overhead projectors. Of all the vertical markets in which AV pros do business, education is, and has always been, among the most consistent and highest revenue producers.

But as anyone in the industry knows, K-12 schools have been facing major budget constraints. At the same time, they’re tasked with finding new ways to engage students — AV technology would be one of those ways. So although it’s generally recognized that technology is critical in today’s teaching environment, for most schools, making the right investment choices requires addressing two interrelated challenges: planning and funding.

Changing Technology

Keeping informed about the most recent developments in school technology is key to developing a solid plan. What makes this so challenging is the rapid pace of advances in technology. No one wants to commit precious resources to equipment that will be outdated by the time it’s delivered and put to use. This dilemma is not unique to schools, of course; all enterprises — and consumers — struggle with the issue. But K-12 schools struggle perhaps more than others because of their dependence on public funding and the political uncertainties that implies. Schools can’t count on a consistent flow of funds to update aging technologies. A plan that includes replacement lifecycle analysis is more likely to be funded.

It’s important to recognize that not all AV technologies advance at the same rate. In fact, some AV technologies can be described as “mature”, and even commoditized. For example, if a school has recently installed a sound system, it’s not likely that the loudspeakers will require replacement for many years. But continuous improvements in digital signal processing technology allows increasingly higher levels of flexibility in the use of that loudspeaker system.

Over the last decade, projection and flat-panel display technologies have neared their mature stage, too, with lower prices and higher performance. Since the early days of AV in schools, the most cost-effective presentation system was a projector and a screen. Today, that’s changing, as flat-panel display prices have dropped, sizes have increased, and performance has dramatically improved.

“We see a migration toward large-format LCD displays, and away from traditional projectors with screens and interactive whiteboards,” says Julie Solomon, manager of marketing and business development at CCS Presentation Systems. Although interactive whiteboards are the hot technology in K-12 today (analyst firm Wainhouse Research says more than 80 percent of schools use them), that may not always be the case. “Eventually, everything will move toward touch interactive displays,” Solomon believes.

Pedagogy as the Driver

Focusing on specific technologies or products may be the wrong approach to future-proofing K-12 school technology. According to Michael D. Leiboff, principal consultant with the Sextant Group, “Faculty and administrators who take the time to examine how their teaching pedagogy should drive technology implementation are in a much better position to succeed.” So while technology is always evolving, it’s not the technology that should drive investment.

“This evolution is not driven by advances in the products that are available, so much as how teachers imagine new ways to use them creatively and effectively,” says Leiboff. “The goal, in planning classroom technology implementation is not merely to purchase best of breed video projectors, SMART Boards or computer tablets, but to imagine how these devices could be used in different ways. And new equipment that will be purchased over time needs to be interoperable with existing equipment.”

Interoperability is an important concern, says Jim Tierney, CEO of Tierney Brothers. “As schools evaluate each piece of new technology they must question how it will work with and enhance current technology while meeting their goal to improve teaching effectiveness and raise achievement,” says Tierney. It’s rare that entire AV systems can be — or should be — replaced on a regular basis.

Leiboff says that the real trick is to infuse flexibility into the infrastructure.

“Equipment, by and large, does not provide much real flexibility. And, over time, at least some of the equipment will need to be replaced,” he says. “Infrastructure, for the most part is cheap. And, it has the added bonus of being funded as part of the building’s overall construction budget, not the technology equipment budget.”

With flexible infrastructure — one that does not itself limit the types of signals and endpoints that can be tied in — new technologies can be more easily added as funds become available.

Andrew J. Milne, CEO of Tidebreak, a Silicon Valley-based provider of group interaction technologies, also believes in the value of flexibility.

“Flexible learning spaces that easily accommodate emerging and future technologies help schools ‘future-proof’ against retrofitting costs without overspending on equipment that will become obsolete, and without sacrificing future performance in order to constrain costs,” says Milne. “Intelligently-designed infrastructure that both anticipates future directions and allows for unanticipated opportunities positions schools for cost-effective evolution of their facilities.”

Milne believes that hardware-centric AV system infrastructures impose constraints for future improvements or upgrades. He says that a software-based system infrastructure offers more options.

“For years, schools have equipped classrooms with AV technologies that primarily facilitate in-class presentations. These rooms use proprietary hardware infrastructures and technologies that require custom design and highly specialized integration skills. The problem is that making changes or upgrades can be costly and time consuming,” Milne says. “A software-enabled infrastructure on the other hand, makes it possible to consider a wider range of learning space arrangements that can embrace different instructional approaches and emerging technologies.”

A clear trend in pedagogical style is the shift from the “sage at the stage” — one-way delivery of information — to more collaborative methods such as the “flipped classroom,” where lectures are homework and collaborative problem solving is class time. While the debate continues to rage over this approach, one thing is indisputable: Today’s generation of learners value the role that technology plays in sharing ideas and information, even outside of school. Research firm Grunwold Associates found in a 2007 study that 96 percent of online teens used social media. That number is likely closer to 100 percent today. Learning technologies that capitalize on this fact — and other tech trends that kids have already adopted — will be wise technology investments for the future.

Tech Trends that Empower Schools

The explosion of mobile devices should also being acknowledged in the classroom. Some schools are actually condoning “Bring Your Own Technology” (BYOT) policies to embrace smartphones and tablets. Advocates argue that because young people are already glued to them, schools should come up with educational uses for them. And at a time when state budget cuts are accelerating, it makes sense for educators to explore BYOT as a way to do more with less. But bringing mobile devices into the classroom is not without its own complications.

“Schools need to invest in a good wireless infrastructure and the necessary bandwidth to support simultaneous use of multiple mobile devices,” adds Solomon. “Many schools are looking at large rollouts of mobile devices, yet don’t have a solid plan for how they are going to support everyone hitting the system at once.”

Other technology trends outside of education are beginning to make sense in the school environment. Cloud computing is one example that has the potential to significantly reduce IT investments in hardware (such as servers, desktop and laptop systems, and storage hardware) and software (operating systems and applications), because these resources can be located centrally in the cloud, where they’re shared among users who can access them from anywhere using any device with Internet access.

Because the cloud moves applications out of their traditional home on the desktop or laptop, low-cost computers like netbooks and thin clients can be used to access applications and content. The main requirement becomes access to the Internet and to networked applications. But the more important advantages that a cloud infrastructure offers are scalability and freedom from being locked into a hardware investment.

Tierney sees the general move toward digital technologies as a catalyst to the adoption of many other types of teaching scenarios.

“In the classroom of the future, all curricula will be digital, so new technologies will be designed around creating, consuming or managing digital curricula,” says Tierney. “The shift to BYOT will speed up the adoption of robust wireless networks within schools to support all the devices. The enhanced wireless infrastructure will, in turn, open the door to technologies that will change how and where digital curriculum is consumed.

“Assessment of students will become interactive, such as through recording of video and audio instead of traditional answers like ‘true’ and ‘false,’” Tierney continues. “Online visual learning will become real time, with students able to learn and work from anywhere through desktop video conferencing technology. All digital resources will be accessible from home for use by administrators, teachers and students through managed home access technology. And finally, all technology devices will be monitored and controlled remotely via single interface remote maintenance software.”

Original Article can be found at:
http://www.infocomm.org/cps/rde/xchg/infocomm/hs.xsl/20758.htm

Dr. Mance and his team implemented a state-of-the-art Smart Classroom environment, complete with high speed wireless Internet access, interactive polling, video/lecture capture technology, distance learning video capability and classroom control and automation systems that have greatly enhanced the engagement capability of classrooms at CalU.

Synergy Media Group helped Dr. Mance design and install the classroom technology mentioned above.  Congratulations to Dr. Mance and California University for the prestigious recognition and the foresight to implement state-of-the-art audio visual classroom systems.

Systems include Polycom video conferencing, integrated audio conferencing, Crestron Digital Media systems, Crestron touchpanels, and much more!

More details regarding the project coming soon…

In Altoona, Synergy will be implementing similar systems.  In the main conference room, a Crestron Digital Media system with a 6″ Wireless touchpanel will control all aspects of the room.  Since this room has movable tables, the Digital Media system will be incorporated into floorboxes and Garnder Denver will utilize ClearOne’s new ceiling microphones as opposed to table top mics.  The breakroom will house a podium, dual projection screens, dual projectors, microphones, and audio reinforcement for large presentations.  Lastly, a facility wide digital signage system and paging system will also be installed.

Walkthrough Of Crestron Touchpanel – YouTube Video

Level 1, the basic classrooms, included a high definition projector and an electric screen.  Sources to the projector included laptop inputs, a dedicated PC, a document camera, and a BluRay DVD player.  The dedicated PC is integrated into a 22″ HD Smart Sympodium which allows the professor to annotate over all software and video located on the dedicated PC.  Audio from all sources through six to eight ceiling speakers, depending on room size.  The entire room, including lighting,  is controlled via a 4″ Crestron touchpanel.  When the professor enters the classroom, he/she presses “System Start” on the touchpanel and the electric screen lowers, the projector turns on, the audio ramps to the appropriate levels, and the dedicated PC automatically displays on the projection screen.

Level 2, the intermediate classrooms, contain dual high definition projectors and dual high definition electric screens.  Two 46″ LCD’s are mounted on the back wall in each level 2 classroom to provide the professor with dual confidence monitors.  Confidence monitors provide the instructor the ability to see what’s being displayed on the projection screens without turning his/her back to the students.  Wireless lavalier microphones, wireless handheld microphones, and a podium microphone provide voice amplification in these classrooms.  The main purpose of these rooms allows for the ability of classroom to classroom instruction.  Cisco C60′s (formerly Tandberg) were deployed in the six intermediate classrooms and allow the professor to teach to additional students in other local classrooms when large lecture halls are unavailable.  The professor is able to send any two  high-definition sources to each far end projector (ie. Laptop/Doc Cam, Instructor Cam/Dedicated PC, etc).  The entire room, including lighting, is controlled via a 15″ high-definition Crestron touchpanel.

Level 3, the advanced classrooms, mirror the intermediate classrooms in functionality with a few major changes.  The advanced rooms are designed for off-campus distance learning through three Cisco C60′s (formerly Tandberg).  In the Level 3 classrooms, the university is able to deliver classes to other universities, branch campuses, and k-12 classrooms.  Each student seat in the Level 3 rooms have a push-to-talk microphone and a 4″ Crestron touchpanel.  When a student has a question for the professor, the student presses their push-to-mic to unmute the microphone and ask a question.  When the student touches the microphone, the video conferencing camera zooms in on the student asking the question so that far-end classroom can see the face of the student.  After the question is asked, the camera zooms back to full classroom view.  The student’s 4″ Crestron touchpanels provide a very unique and creative use.  When the students enter the classroom, they enter their names on the virtual keypads on the touchpanels.  Once complete, the student’s names appear on a LED board directly in front of their seat so the professor can identify each student by name on the first day of class.  Secondly, these touchpanels allow the professor to hold anonymous polling sessions.  For example, the professor can ask the class a question with and request the students to answer A, B, C, D, and E.  In real-time, the professor sees the anonymous results of the poll on the instructor touchpanel.  Once the poll is complete, the professor can then immediately show the poll results on each student’s local touchpanel.  Professors have found additional creative uses for polling.  For example, one professor asks his students to press A if he is going to fast, B if just right, or C if he’s going to slow.  Since our polling system provides real-time results, the professor is able to tailor his teaching style based on real-time data.  Finally, all the classes in the level 3 rooms can be recorded via a MediaSite recording system.  All classes are then uploaded to a server where students can login and stream any classes they are enrolled in from anywhere in the world.

All classrooms are integrated into Crestron RoomView

which provides the university technicians the ability to monitor all classroom technology remotely.

Crestron Touchpanel

Confidence Monitors Displaying Different Sources: Computer & Document Camera

Loading Up the Trucks for the Installation. That's ALOT of Crestron gear.

Polling Results from Student Touchpanel

Polling Example from Student Touchpanel

Advanced Classroom with Dual HD Projection, Student Touchpanels, Push-To-Talk Microphones, and Video Conferencing Cameras

Intermediate Classroom - Projector, Confidence Monitors and Videoconferencing Camera

Advanced Room Wiring in Progress

Duda Hall - One of Three Campus Buildings that Received Classroom Technology Upgrades

In the local Pittsburgh market, Synergy has a dozen competitors; however, the number of quality competitors is two.  How is a potential client to know which integrators have quality reputations and which ones have poor reputations?  My suggestion is to receive references from their three MOST RECENT projects.  Every company has at least three good references within the last few years, but if you narrow it down to their most recent installations, you can determine the current quality of their AV installations.  AV personnel move from company to company, so a company with a good reputation two years ago does not necessarily mean they have a good reputation in the last six months.  We always say we don’t mind losing on price when it’s to one of the firms with a good reputation who we know will do a good job for the customer.  But the customer really loses out when a lower quality competitor wins on lowest price when the customer expects a high quality installation.

An article from Commercial Integrator (industry magazine) writes that a number of low quality integrators are actually hurting the reputation of the entire AV field.  http://www.commercialintegrator.com/article/how_cis_are_hurting_the_industry

Synergy prides itself on quality and reliability.  If these attributes rank highly in customer’s decision-making criteria, we would be a great fit for that company.

Synergy Media Group – Custom Projection Design for Church - VIDEO FROM YOUTUBE OF OUR INSTALLATION

The outside of the chapel

When not in use, this screen is hidden in the alter and is completely concealed. When in use, it rises from the alter towards the ceiling.

52" LCD displays provide guests better viewing angles of the service.

A high definition pan/tilt/zoom camera mounted on a pillar. Synergy ran the cable through the pillars grout work and the re-grouted it to hide all cabling.

The control center with preview monitors, Crestron touchpanel, camera controls, and a mixer board

A close up of our custom touchpanel design

Just a neat photo of the chapel

Take advantage of leasing opportunities today!  Call Bill McIntosh for more details: 1888-321-0040 x707.