AV in Education: Teaching Solutions for Trinity College Dublin, Biomedical Sciences Institute
The Trinity College Dublin is one of the greatest universities in the world, with a four-hundred-year history of excellence in both research and teaching.
We work closely with Trinity College’s Audio Visual Media Services Department to support their existing installations and install the latest technologies in their new facilities. As you would expect from a leading teaching and research institute, their technological standards are extremely high, but a priority is given to ease of use and reliable user interfaces.
There are over one hundred Senior Lecturer rooms across five sites in Dublin with presentation equipment running every day, presenting both logistical and technological challenges. We work to maintain these sites, ensuring all of the facilities are kept available for teaching staff and were selected to equip 17 of the 23 new rooms in Trinity College’s new Biomedical Studies teaching and research facility.
“It is always great to maintain and expand our relationship with Trinity College Dublin. With this project in particular, it has been rewarding to think that Fitting Image has made a difference to the environment in which researchers will make groundbreaking discoveries that will have national and global impacts.”
– Ed Corin, Director CTO
One of the primary challenges for an installation of this scale was audibility and general sound quality. For a project that set out to ‘redefine the scientific landscape in Ireland,’ there was no room for compromise on technical excellence. The audio system was designed on CAD to ensure that an even sound pressure level was achieved throughout the Lecture Theatre spaces.
Trinity College requires large-scale displays for detailed presentations. Working alongside Trinity College Dublin’s Audio Visual Media Services Department, we installed a system with a unique feature that allows two displays to show before-and-after pictures at the same time from one source. This feature is switchable so that one screen can be used for camera relay and another can be used for presentations, thus providing maximum versatility for AV in education.
Video conferencing facilities were also installed, enabling participation from remote sites while facilitating overflow rooms in the same building. The Tercentenary Lecture Theatre, a 300-seat state-of-the-art facility catering for 700 researchers and approximately 900 undergraduate students, was fitted with two 4.8m wide screens. The Lecture Theatre project involved 4 days of commissioning and was installed over 14 days.
The building was officially opened on 17th June 2011 by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, and The Tercentenary Lecture Theatre is without doubt one of the most modern lecture theatres in Dublin today.
Equipment:
- AMX control system
- AMX 17” Touch Panel
- AKG digital radio mics
- Polycom HDX Video Conferencing codec and two cameras
- Extron video switching and processing
- AXYS Intellivox audio system
- NEC Video projectors
- Biamp Nexia audio processors with echo cancellation
Dr John Hegarty said, “The scale of this development is unlike anything undertaken in the history of Trinity, or indeed in Ireland. It has innovation at its core, and I predict that it will generate enormous dividends to Irish society in terms of health, wealth and wisdom.”
