When administrators at the MIT Sloan School of Management began planning their new academic building, their goal was a facility that would last at least 100 years.
While it's unlikely that technology standards will last that long, we did install AV systems based on an all-digital infrastructure that should stay current for the foreseeable future.
Working from designs by Cambridge-based consulting firm Acentech, ADTECH Systems engineered, programmed and installed systems in eight lecture halls, 40 study rooms, eight conference rooms, and two dining areas in the new building, plus four more classrooms in an older building.
We based these systems on a Crestron DigitalMedia™ backbone that can carry virtually any mix of digital and analog AV signals, including uncompressed 1080p HD video with Deep Color, 3D video and 1900 x 1200 computer signals, plus HD digital audio and all control, data, and Ethernet on a specially engineered single-cable solution. This added capability and high bandwidth ensures that the newly installed infrastructure will be able to handle the higher resolutions and color depth that future computer and video systems will require.
The resulting systems are very powerful. Each classroom has two screens, using side-by-side, 5000-lumen projectors showing images from computer, DVD, cable TV, a document camera or a videoconferencing system. Professors have the ability to mark up any still or moving image on screen using Crestron's DVPHD-GB high definition video annotator.
Faculty can record their classes as well, since ADTECH tied each classroom into a Cisco/Tandberg Content Server. The system records video of the instructor as well as all visual materials, including PowerPoint slides and even handwritten notes, then makes it available for live or on-demand viewing over the Web.
In addition to the recording functions, each classroom – plus 25 of the 40 student study rooms– has full, multi-point video conferencing capability. Professors can use these systems to bring in guest lecturers, while students may also use the systems to tie into study groups when out of town, prepare presentations for club activities or even interview for jobs at out-of-town companies.
The feedback we've received on the systems has been very good. Faculty and students seem to have embraced the systems and their cutting-edge technology.
| Main Gallery | Hynes Convention Center | Boston College | MIT Sloan | UMASS Medical | Home Theater |
| First Congregational Church | Rockport Music Hall | Boston Financial |
