Temasek Polytechnic relies on Extron AV to create Hyflex classrooms

This Singapore academic institution advocates Hyflex learning with the installation of switching equipment, distribution, control and audio Extron and the solution Lenovo ThinkSmart Core for Microsoft Teams Rooms for AV streaming.

Founded in 1990, Temasek Polytechnic (TP) is one of Singapore's leading higher education institutions, with diplomas in the areas of applied sciences, business, design, engineering, OF, etc. and a holistic learning system that combines practical experience, character education and relevant skills.

With this vision, TP has adopted the HyFlex learning, that allows students to attend classes in person, remotely and on demand, addressing the dynamic shift of more and more classes being taught online.

For this project, Those responsible for this institution have had Digiworz as responsible for the design of the new audiovisual system and integration services, with the choice of switching equipment, distribution, control and audio Extron.

Ten learning spaces of different sizes and layouts now have the HyFlex audiovisual system, which is configured with the unified communications engine Lenovo ThinkSmart Core for Microsoft Teams Rooms, for audio and video transmission between classrooms and remote students.

The application Microsoft Teams integrated provides a simple user interface through a touch control panel, to manage interactions between classrooms and remote students, where all the functions are, including session scheduling, video recording/transcription of sessions, screen sharing, chat, file transfer, etc.

The classroom AV content processed by the CU engine includes video from the teacher's document camera, of the presentation of the topic from your laptop, of an interactive classroom screen, views of space from PTZ cameras and sound from microphones.

Remote students with computers with webcam have complete telepresence of the classroom. Completing the HyFlex paradigm, The Teams app records class sessions and saves them to Microsoft OneDrive or in the Streams cloud storage, allowing students to access content anytime and on demand.

Each HyFlex classroom is equipped with a 86” interactive touch screen that serves as a blackboard, another standard 86” secondary, mounted on the wall for students to see, and of a 65” monitor, located on the wall opposite the lectern, providing a direct view to the lecturer.

And Extron MGP 641xi multi-window processor completes the HyFlex experience to show up to four video sources on screens from the classroom and from the ends. This content may include lectures, images from PTZ cameras in the room and from the webcams of remote students.

Las microphone arrays Mounted on the ceiling of each classroom, they capture the voices of teachers and students, in person and remotely (via CU engine). The directional sound of these microphones allows the automatic tracking by PTZ camera of the people who speak.

An audio DSP processor DMP Plus of Extron performs the acoustic echo cancellation for remote students, while those in the room hear the sound through eight SoundField ceiling speakers from this manufacturer, powered by a XPA amplifier four channels and 100 watts.

A processor control IPCP Pro Integrates with CU engine to perform room AV management, which includes LinkLicense for user interfaces and allows the ThinkSmart touchpad on the stand to work seamlessly with this device.

In line with the TP digitization plan to foster a technologically driven educational ecosystem to deliver personalized and flexible learning, HyFlex classrooms have given the institution the ability to provide options that were not available before.

As pointed out Terence Toh, Digiworz Deputy Sales Director, “The HyFlex classroom learning system facilitates in-person and remote classes simultaneously. This provides flexibility to students, "who can attend classes on site or remotely from the comfort of their home".

One of the great advantages of HyFlex classrooms is that classes are recorded, “a very useful function for our students, since they can watch the lessons again to review them or catch up if they have missed any”, they point out from the institution.