SOLUTIONS: BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY, PENNSYLVANIA UNITED STATES Business class
A multi-million dollar university renovation project has been completed with an extensive complement of AV kit, writes James Christopher
The new classrooms feature NEC projectors and displays
[ABOUT THE INSTALLER]
Established in 1985, Advanced AV is headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania and serves the mid- Atlantic region of the US
A recent expansion to its facilities added a 200sqm Systems Room, which is dedicated to collaborative design efforts among project managers, systems programmers, service co-ordinators and field technicians. Designs are built and tested in the new 130sqm Fabrication Shop
Advanced AV is an InfoComm CAVSP Diamond Certified firm
Its systems are found in boardrooms, conference centres, classrooms, auditoriums and houses of worship, as well as education facilities
OVER THE past two years, Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania has spent $10 million (€7.7 million) renovating Sutliff Hall, which is home to its College of Business, Department of Instructional Technology and Department of Economics. The 4,800sqm facility houses classrooms, offices, conference rooms and a Wall Street-inspired financial services laboratory.
Extron and Analog Way dominate this rack
Advanced AV, based in West Chester, Pennsylvania, was chosen to handle the integration of AV systems. “For part of the new classrooms, Bloomsburg University required full screen projection with 1280 x 800 WXGA resolution, as well as a supplemental widescreen display monitor, being 1920 x 1080. They also wanted the option to select any source in the classroom system,” says Mike Morgan, senior account manager at Advanced AV. For sources, each classroom had a dedicated room PC with both analogue and digital inputs, a Samsung document camera, a DVD player, an IPTV box and an auxiliary composite video input. The classrooms were equipped with NEC NP-P350W projectors for the main screen. Each monitor, primarily used for streaming cable TV, was an NEC V461. “When we looked at that, we had a number of problems to tackle. One was the contrast in resolution between the projector and the flat screen, the first being 1920 x 1080,
the other being 1280 x 800. In addition, we also had two different aspect ratios, 16:10 for the projectors and 16:9 for the displays,” Morgan says. To overcome this issue,
Advanced AV opted to use Analog Way’s Smart MatriX LE. Smart MatriX LE is a scaled matrix with native high resolution outputs. With 10 inputs, including two 3G/HD/SD-SDI and two DVI-I, the Smart MatriX LE allows the display of a presentation on two different outputs and offers the ability to manage the content with seamless transitions. BU’s College of Business now has a total of 14 classrooms equipped with Smart MatriX LE. Dr Michael Tidwell, former dean of BU’s College of Business, has described the renovated Sutliff facility as “one of the newest and most innovative buildings for a business college in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education”.
VIDEO Analog Way Smart MatriX LE native matrix switchers NEC NP-P350W projectors NEC V461 displays Extron HDMI 201 HDMI extenders Haivision Stingray HD set-top box Samsung document cameras Sony DVP-SR500M CD/DVD player