Wolfington Teletorium
The Teletorium posed some
unique challenges to the engineering team at RJC Designs. As the name implies,
this is a teleconferencing auditorium. This 280-seat venue had to be flexible
enough to handle anything from a VTC to an electronic classroom-style presentation.
Add to the list video pre- and post-production facilities,
dual screen video conferencing, configuring for town hall-style meetings, 16:9,
and digital expendability. The size and configurations planned for this room
meant that it would need two "heads-up" displays for the presenter
and three positions to which the podium could be moved, LCD monitors, control
system, PC interfaces, and everything else moving along with it. This is Mandeville
Hall's "do it all" room.
As in the Moot Boardrooms,
the Teletorium's lighting had to be flexible enough for several different configurations,
including videoconferencing and video production, while taking into consideration
that high-resolution , front-projected images were to be used. Once again we
focused on a combination of lighting sources and control scenes to accomplish
the various applications of the room. We augmented the lighting at the front
and front-sides of the room with production-style lighting tracks. This gave
us the capabilities of focused key lighting at the various possible podium positions,
and allowed flexibility in lighting for conference table set-ups or town hall
meeting configurations.
The main projection system
used is a Hughes D340SC, which produces an impressive 3700 ANSI lumens. "This
high-output ILA projector cut through the general and production mode room lighting
and maintained a very acceptable picture," says RJC. "Of course it
came to life when the lighting conditions were set up in the presentation modes
for computer and video display." One of the first video teleconferences
on this system included Father Rashford, U.S. Ambassador to Italy Tom Figlietta,
U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican Lindy Boggs and Archbishop John Foley President
of the Pontifical Council on Social Communications (the latter three on the
distant end).
The D340SC is used for 4:3
images and displays on a 160-inch DaLite screen. Intended for 16:9 images as
well as two-way analog or digital videoconferencing, a second retractable DaLite
screen of 195 inches has been installed. While not ready at the time of this
writing, the plan is to flank the D340SC with two Hughes G1000 digital ILA projectors.
The 195-inch screen will then be split between the local preview image and the
remote image during videoconferences. Future plans call for an additional projector
to be installed specifically for 16:9 display on this screen.
Figure 4 - Inside the Teletorium Control room.
To
aid presenters using the Teletorium, two heads-up displays have been placed
at the rear of the room. These use Panasonic LCD PTL-795U's on Draper 100-inch
screens. When not in use, both sets of projectors, their screens and the room's
auto tracking cameras are concealed in the ceiling through the use of SVS lifts.
With the number of possible
configurations of the room came a degree of complexity for the instructors and
presenters operating the system. Technology configurations including electronic
class, basic presentation, VTC, audio-only presentations and more were once
again programmed into the control system as macros. The presenter has the capability
of changing the presets or manually configuring the technology in on the room.
Considering the number of
possible audio sources available both locally and from Master Control, reducing
the level of complexity when manually operating the system was necessary, and
meant some careful equipment choices were in order. For audio, we decided to
use an Intelix audio-only matrix as the head end. The matrix uses Intelix's
own computer-based application for configuration and audio level adjustments.
Various destinations off the matrix include Biamp DLA93tc Digital-Logic Automixers.
These mixers proved to be invaluable, particularly for the non-technical staff
members. For example, when setting up a presentation with microphones, the instructor
could press a single button on the podium's control screen and the audio system
would automatically configure the system through the audio matrix, to the Biamp
Automixers, and all audio would go to an "Initial Configuration" level.
With a room having over 50 possible audio configurations, the separate matrix,
automixer, and control system combination is definitely the way to go.
As mentioned earlier, the various configurations of the room meant that the podium would be required to move from the center of the Teletorium's stage to off-stage left or right. Knowing this, RJC designed the podium to have as few cables and connections as possible without reducing functionality. To this end a single matrix was built into the podium for use with its three NTSC interfaces. Local control of the four devices in the podium was accomplished by using an AMX AXU-CV10/PB touch panel and an Axcent 3 Pro in the podium connected to the control room via AXlink.
Including all of the support
electronics and control devices for the Teletorium, the local control room also
houses two PCs on Extron interfaces and six other video sources including an
Elmo EV-500AF document camera. Having this control room located at the rear
of the Teletorium allows support staff to run all facets of electronic presentations
and video teleconferencing, giving the presenter the freedom to concentrate
on their work without having to run the hardware.
The room also has complete
video pre- and post-production capabilities based around Panasonic MX50A productions
switcher similar to that used in Moot Control. The room has multiple connectivity
paths - both baseband and broadband - back to Master Control. This allows the
Teletorium to share all of master Control's resources while maintaining local
control.
Staffing and Training
A system of this size and
complexity requires qualified onsite staff to operate and maintain. In many
cases, with the convergence of new technology in instructional facilities, prior
in-house staffing is not adequate. When all this technology comes online there
will be an immediate need to provide training and assistance to the instructional
staff and that requires adequate support staffing.
"We had a large group
of faculty get together to determine what kind of training was needed, even
as intuitive as the AMX system was to use," says David Lees. To aid in
training, RJC designed the Faculty Development Lab - a mock classroom that allowed
faculty and staff to get a feel for the kinds of equipment in the Hall before
it was used in the teaching environment. RJC the A/V contractors, and some of
the equipment manufacturers helped to train Lees and his staff, who in turn
train the faculty.
"There will be no 'lamp-style
overheads' in this building," Father Rashford says, according to Lees.
This means that faculty planning to use the Hall will need to advance to the
state-of-the-art technology within. In order for this to be a successful transition
from the "old and familiar" to the new, in-depth and continued training
from David Lees and his IMS staff will be required.
In Conclusion
"The promise of what
Mandeville Hall is bringing to St. Joseph's is what gets us us the most attention,"
says Josepoh Lunardi, director of external relations at St. Joseph's. "This
is one of the few facilities of its kind any where in this part of the country."
Besides aiding in instruction at St. Joseph's, the facilities within Mandeville
Hall have attracted the attention of non-profit groups, other universities and
government agencies that normally would not have access to anything like what
is available there. Many of the companies that already have relationships with
the campus through the Haub Business School have also expressed interest. When
asked if his vision of "traditional learning experience enhanced greatly
by technology" had been fulfilled, Father Rashford replied pointedly, "By
and large, we have succeeded."
