One of the key strengths of this project was Pure AV effortlessly collaborating with Queen’s Media Services and delivering such a variety of purpose-specific technologies to suit each space. - Mohamed Hamed, Head of Media Services, Queen's University Belfast
- Mohamed Hamed, Head of Media Services, Queen's University Belfast
Queen's Business School at Queen's University Belfast is an exciting addition to the university's educational portfolio. The brand new, state-of-the-art facility is designed to provide students with access to the latest resources and technologies in business education.
With a focus on innovation, Queen's Business School aims to inspire and empower the next generation of business leaders. Offering a wide range of courses, the school needed to deliver high quality spaces that enabled a collaborative and dynamic learning environment for its students.
Following a competitive tender process for the supply, delivery, installation, programming, commissioning, and waste management of over 20 spaces, Pure AV was chosen as the partner capable of delivering such a large-scale project.
Our ability to handle even the most intricate audio visual projects, along with our highly impressive track record across the Higher Education sector were also fundamental to the university's decision.
Prior to the commencement of Queen's Business School's construction, Pure AV collaborated extensively with the university's Media Services department to establish project expectations. Ultimately we were able to work together to create a comprehensive project plan.
To ensure Queen's University Belfast fully understood our plans, our team presented a series of schematics, CAD drawings, elevations, floorplans, and customised architectural drawings to help better visualise each space.
To align perfectly to the timelines of both the university and the third-party contractor, Pure AV recognised that a project of this scale would require a dedicated Project Manager to oversee all aspects of the installation. This included first-fix, second-fix, and the complete commissioning and programming of the AV systems.
The end result is a collection of high-quality, uniform spaces that have established a new standard across the campus of Queen's University Belfast. Such spaces include;
To maximise room utilisation throughout the Business School, a series of versatile, divisible spaces have been created to allow different room configurations.
In order to facilitate such room transformations, each space is equipped with custom programmed AMX room control systems, which have been integrated into the bespoke, front of house, TOP-TEC lecterns. This allows for quick and convenient adjustments at the touch of a button, ultimately, ensuring a smooth transition between various setups.
Panasonic projection has been installed to ensure large scale content with exceptional clarity. Additionally, Aver PTZ cameras with auto-tracking capabilities have been deployed to allow for the recording of sessions within the space.
With these adaptable spaces, user-friendly controls, and high quality audio and video, Queen's Business School provides a flexible environment that can effortlessly accommodate to ever-evolving teaching and learning needs.
The divisible lecture theatre can accommodate a total of 250 students and can easily be transformed into two separate spaces to meet the needs of the Business School.
In its large configuration, the lecturer can use dual projection to deliver content to the audience with exceptional clarity, PTZ cameras for high-performance lecture capture, and complete room audio coverage, all managed through the custom programmed AMX control system.
In the independent configurations, each space is equipped with its own projection, audio, PTZ cameras, Wolfvision visualisers, and room control system, ensuring that the university can fully utilise the spaces according to its needs.
Queen’s Business School is a globally renowned centre for high-impact academic and policy research with close links to industry, therefore the audio-visual technology was designed with a particular aim for widening the participation and enhancing the level of engagement between stakeholders ranging from undergraduate and postgraduate students, to other prestigious management institutions and industry leaders from around the globe. - Mohamed Hamed, Head of Media Services, Queen's University Belfast
One of the most exciting spaces within the Business School is the Harvard style collaboration room, where students and lecturers can come together to discuss course content.
This room features a central single projection system, making it easy to view large format content. To ensure that everyone can see the material, regardless of where they are located in the space, we strategically placed confidence monitors and repeater screens throughout the room.
In order to create a standardised experience, our team integrated all the technologies found in other spaces into the lectern.
The integration of technology in the space has significantly enhanced the learning experience for both students and lecturers alike. The availability of the Harvard-style collaboration room promotes close interaction and fosters meaningful discussions, ensuring active student participation.
For an enhanced large group learning experience, the computer lab offers students and lecturers all the necessary resources in a modern educational environment. The lab is a versatile space that can be divided into two separate areas, or be used as a single large space, depending on the university's needs.
To ensure that content can be viewed from any part of the lab, dual projection and a series of repeater screens have been implemented across the space. These are seamlessly controlled by the custom-programmed AMX control system at the front of the space.
In line with standardisation provision, all lecture capture is handled with Aver cameras, while the lectern incorporates input plates for effortless connectivity of devices and content deployment.
A range of standardised 'bring your own device' spaces have been implemented across the campus to allow anyone to enter the area and understand how to use the technology.
There are four small group rooms, three interview rooms, two incubator hubs, two larger meeting spaces, and a boardroom. Each space is equipped to accommodate the room size, and features AMX control. To facilitate video collaboration, Poly X50 video bars with integrated camera, microphones, and audio have been strategically positioned in each space.
To ensure connectivity for almost any device, AMX hydraports have been integrated into the collaboration tables and support popular input types such as USB-C and HDMI.
For in-room group collaboration sessions, Mersive Solstice pods have been installed to enable sharing from personal laptops to the in-room displays.
The boardroom distinguishes itself from the main meeting rooms. Equipped with an audio DSP, the space also includes Aver and QSC cameras, which have been programmed to seamlessly integrate with the Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 speakers throughout the space, ensuring exceptional audio pickup and auto-tracking.
Stock market simulation is an increasingly popular method used in higher education to provide students with a hands-on learning experience in the field of finance by simulating real-world trading scenarios.
For a dynamic experience within the space, the audio visual system needed to be of the highest quality. To ensure detailed content could be projected onto the screen, a black projection screen was used to increase content clarity. Lecture capture is achieved with an Aver PTZ camera and all scenarios are controlled through the custom programmed AMX control system integrated into the lectern.
By participating in these simulations, students can apply theoretical concepts learned in the classroom to a real-world stock market environment.