Kramer AV provides its AVoIP solution for John Abbott College

The platform of Kramer AV, with touch panels, audio and connectivity, offer teachers at this Canadian campus flexibility to teach and share content, presentations, etc. with minimal setup and training.

Faced with a growing student population and limited space on the university campus, John Abbott College, public university located in the Canadian city of Montreal, I needed a smart, scalable way to add classes quickly.

Instead of undertaking the costly and time-consuming process of constructing a new building on campus, Those in charge have adopted a modular system, with the installation of 32 prefabricated units to create thirteen new classrooms in what has been called Maple Hall.

For this project, the technical managers of John Abbott College have worked with the integrator AVI-SPL and the manufacturer Kramer AV to design a technological environment that is easy to handle by teachers.

The basis of the solution is AV over IP platform Kramer, designed to make it easier for teachers to present, Collaboration and content sharing with minimal setup and training.

Each classroom has a touch panel Kramer KT-208 8” and a preview monitor on the teacher's podium for intuitive classroom control; a 86” interactive screen of SMART Technologies y two additional, also 86”, from the manufacturer LG to ensure optimal sight lines from any seat.

Added to this is a PA-120Z audio amplifier and ceiling speakers Galil 6-C Kramer for clear, evenly distributed sound, as well as KDS-DEC7 decoders, offering ultra-low latency video over the university's IP network, y VIA GO devices from this manufacturer, for the wireless streaming of 4K content.

Unlike traditional point-to-point systems, Kramer's AVoIP platform allows any input goes to any screen (in all classrooms, groups or even across campus), what opens new ways of teaching and learning.

“The teachers enter the room and everything works perfectly,” he says. Ryan Forster, User Experience Coordinator at John Abbott College-. They don't need to think about inputs or buttons. They can concentrate on teaching, not in technology”.

The new configuration allows teachers split screens by group, share content from one class to another or highlight presentations of students by simply touching the control panel. They can also annotate content directly in the interactive visual system or from your laptop and view it instantly on all the computers in the room.

“It is about flexibility -represses Forster-. We now have the AV infrastructure to support teaching that adapts in real time, either with work sessions in small groups or sharing the same presentation with several classrooms”.

The equipment in each classroom is housed in podium racks, simplifying maintenance and access. A centralized network of switches Cisco and of Ubiquity manage audiovisual traffic, connecting each endpoint, to ensure consistent performance.

Los Kramer control panels also manage classroom lighting and curtains, allowing teachers to manage the entire learning environment with a single touch. Los motion sensors automate system shutdown to reduce energy consumption when rooms are unoccupied.

“We are no longer limited to single-use classrooms. If a classroom needs to offer a different course tomorrow or expand its capacity for a guest speaker, “We can do it without the need for new infrastructure.”, Forster concludes..