Sony technology boosts hybrid learning at universities

The Comillas Pontifical University (Spain), the University of Lausanne (Swiss) and the Lille Catholic Institute (France), have been some of the centers that have opted for Sony to help in its modernization and promote a hybrid learning system.

Sony has experienced increasing demand for its educational solutions and technologies to support universities during the integration of remote learning, in addition to helping in its modernization and implementation of a hybrid and versatile teaching system.

The Comillas Pontifical University (Spain), the University of Lausanne (Swiss), and the Lille Catholic Institute (France), They have been some of the centers that have opted for Sony to initiate a series of changes and promote a hybrid learning system.

With more than 15 000 students in Spain, The Universidad Pontificia Comillas needed cameras and microphones that offered an experience as similar as possible to being physically in class. In this way, The institution chose to equip its 228 classrooms to offer a bimodal setup with cameras SRG and hands-free multidirectional microphones MA-A100 from Sony.

“After the crisis caused by COVID-19 and after being forced to continue training our students from home, we start planning possible future scenarios. We wanted to offer an experience as similar as possible to being physically in class and with Sony we have achieved it. The University has developed a system called simultaneous bimodality which consists of a half virtual and half in-person approach to ensure that all students receive an optimal experience, wherever they are”, explains Luis Francisco Blanco, CIO of the Comillas Pontifical University.

The University of Lausanne, in Switzerland, a reference institution in the higher education and research sector that has more than 15 000 students, opted for a custom solution that included the tool with handwriting tracking and extraction functions Edge Analytics de Sony, allowing teachers to deliver engaging video content to their students, and SRG cameras, Equipped with a powerful optical zoom and designed with Full HD image quality and a wide viewing angle that guarantee clear images even at a distance.

Classes are recorded and uploaded to UbiCast Media Server, which is responsible for producing and delivering video content to students with professional quality.

“Our goal was to find a solution that adapted to all areas of our institution and that could be implemented before the start of the new course.. Thanks to a long relationship of trust with Sony, We were convinced that they would be able to offer a solution adapted to the needs of our institution and more than 15 000 students enrolled in these unprecedented times” comments Olivier Grosjean, from the University of Lausanne.

Since the implementation of this solution, the university has witnessed high statistics, with more than 12.000 videos added to the platform, 9 millions of views and 5 millions of unique visits by students. In addition, It has also benefited from capture and broadcast functions that were not present before, and the level of interaction between students and teachers has seen a significant increase.

Founded in 1875, the Catholic Institute of Lille (Catholic University of Lille) It is a multidisciplinary institution that brings together five faculties, schools and institutes with more than 12.000 students who study 90 training programs in 2021. These entities are called EESPIG (Private higher education establishments of general interest – Private higher education centers of general interest).

It also houses a hospital complex (three hospitals with a thousand beds), three nursing homes (700 camas), a therapeutic institute, educational and pedagogical, and two social innovation communities, called ESPIC (Private health group of collective interest – Private healthcare complex of collective interest).

The Catholic Institute of Lille has chosen Sony products and solutions to equip its learning spaces, like conference rooms, classes, laboratories, etc. For several years, more than 150 rooms are equipped with projectors from this manufacturer.

The university continues this trend by equipping its new facilities with the latest technologies from Sony, like 3LCD laser projector VPL-PHZ50. At the same time, for the sake of multimodality, is equipping the rooms with PTZ cameras BRC-X400 y BRC-X1000 from Sony to offer teachers and users the best possible experience, whether they are present in the room or viewing it from a distance.

The institution is also testing multidirectional microphones MAS-A100 in your studios to record audio along with video capture and enable live streaming.