The University of Insubria has deployed Kramer’s audio-visual solution in over 40 educational spaces.
Kramer describes itself as the “leading audio-visual experience company”. It provides solutions from AVSM to advanced cloud-based communication, collaboration, and control solutions.
User numbers on the university’s previous system rocketed from 12 simultaneous connections to more than 250, which was not able to handle the extra users brought about by the pandemic.
Following funding from the Lombardy Regional Council, the university chose Adicom Group and Kramer to support its students in the classroom and at home.
Luca Mondini, Front and Back Office Service and User Support at the University of Insubria, said: “Our critical points were the lack of integration between new technologies and existing platforms.
“For example, Teams made it difficult for remote learners to interact transparently. It was difficult for the teacher and students to hear each other mutually and intelligibly.
“But as importantly, to ensure adoption, ease of use was key, so the technology wouldn’t become a burden on the teacher.”
“We connected all equipment with their respective management systems to dedicated VLANs, then built a centralized server where we inputted Kramer solutions for programming the matrices and keypads so that everything now works exactly as it was supposed to, and I can control everything from one place.”
Kramer’s AV solution was chosen to enable hybrid learning in 25 classrooms, five lecture halls, and ten mobile studios.
The central system to Kramer’s solution for the university is the Kramer VS 62DT matrix switch, which has been added to all classrooms.
It offers six HDMI inputs that can be routed to HDBaseT or HDMI output, supporting long-reach video and audio transmissions.
Kramer TP-583T and TP-583R 4K HDR were installed to provide the HDBaseT transmission for all the projectors.
HDMI outputs were used in classrooms where there were multiple projectors.
Two Kramer VM-2DT and four Kramer VM-4HDT 4K@60Hz HDB long reach extenders were also implemented with HDBT lines for the projectors.
To provide “maximum simplicity”, the Kramer RC.208 compact control keypads were added so that teachers could use an identical-looking control dashboard, whichever room they are in.
Mondini continued: “At the moment, we’re experiencing a turnaround; 99 percent in-person and one percent remote, though students still want the ability to follow classes remotely,
“One of the main advantages of being properly hybrid-equipped is that the university has not had to suffer declines in the number of enrollments, or increased dropouts, due to students’ inability to continue studying remotely.
“Instead, we’re now able to ensure that lessons are always delivered with the same degree of involvement, regardless of where the students are.”
In April 2023, Poly spoke about the difference that audiovisual tools can make in today’s hybrid learning environment.
Poly connected 600 staff and 1,350 students across a large campus at a prestigious university in Paris, France.
Also in April this year, UC Today explored the top audio-visual trends in 2023, including the shift from hardware to software codecs, extended reality and the metaverse, touchless devices and gesture control, the rise of artificial intelligence, and more.
