- Perhaps it's sheer coincidence that the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Classroom Media Support Team selected four general assignment classrooms in the Psychology Building as the first on campus to implement AMX's® MeetingManager™ solution. Indeed, the four-person support crew immediately envisioned the advantages of such a tool designed to track equipment usage and maintenance, generate a variety of usage reports and monitor device security. Considering the immense value in time saved and already significant return on investment that MeetingManager has delivered, it appears this particular installation was a masterful meeting of the minds.
"With our current number of people on staff, this felt a little overwhelming at times - to assist instructors, design and specify equipment, and maintain it all. The AMX control system and MeetingManager software really simplifies and unifies everything. We've been extremely happy with the results."
Embarking On New Territory
- The university's experience with control systems dates back to 1993, when the School of Business made the decision to harness integration and automation technology for enhancing its own classroom environments. At that time, the school was chartering new "state-of-the-art" territory. Yet only a couple of years later, it became evident that the control system being used needed updating, if not, complete revamping. The system itself was based mostly on a cumbersome push-button operation, and the overall design proved problematic.
- "We came to the judgment that this system at the School of Business was not going to work there or anywhere else we planned on implementing control and automation throughout campus," said Tom Wise, the university's classroom media support coordinator. "The idea to purchase AMX technology was to get away from that push-button control while going forward with what we saw as a more reliable and compatible automated control system."
Moving Forward …
- Such a calculated assessment and call for change effectively kick-started the support team's efforts to standardize approximately 200 general assignment classrooms on the university's expansive campus. The AMX NetLinx® Control System, as the proverbial brainpower of integration and automation, as well as AMX's MeetingManager software would work to monitor all connected devices, all the time, from virtually anywhere. This solution would then allow the support team to determine which specific electronic equipment gets used most often, delivers reliable operation and, in turn, should be purchased in the future and installed in more areas. According to Wise, this made sound financial sense for the state-funded university.
All-Knowing
- With the ability to collect specific equipment usage and maintenance data, the support team can better determine if the current technology in place is worth the investment or ultimately not a necessary piece of equipment to purchase in future classroom media systems. For example, the laptop connection in Room 105 is heavily used, according to Dombrowski. During the past month-and-a-half, the connection has exceeded 90 hours of operation, revealing how important it is to the instructors as a teaching aid. In comparison, the document camera in the same room has run a total of 19 hours and the DVD player, only 30 minutes.
- "It makes us really look into what we have installed and whether or not it's really viable," Dombrowski said. "The interesting thing in this situation is that if you asked me what I may have thought to be the most used piece of equipment in Room 105 before MeetingManager, I would have guessed the document camera. The MeetingManager reports revealed otherwise and that's good information to know."
Time Saving
- It also saves valuable time for the four-person support team, which is responsible for three major "zones" on campus that include 26 buildings with general assignment classrooms. The university itself stretches beyond 900 acres. Prior to MeetingManager, each support team member personally visited one classroom at a time to watch how instructors were using the existing technology.
- "We really just peeked our heads into the classes to get a general idea," Dombrowski said. "MeetingManager provides concrete numbers."
Cost Cutting
- Concrete numbers and sound bottom-line decisions. Consider the placement of a wireless microphone in Room 121, the smallest of all the rooms in the Psychology Building with 105 seats. After tracking its usage through MeetingManager during the course of a month, the wire-free mic had been activated a total of five hours. That translates into an expensive proposition for the university. By the time you add in the wireless receiver, amplifier, matrix mixer, audio processor and speakers, the total investment eclipses $5,000 - or about $1,000 an hour to operate.
- "I'm thinking we can tap into MeetingManager to set up a range of reports in order to gather all the information we really need as a support team," Wise said. "In the end, the professors just want the rooms to work, and typically, they don't say anything to us unless there is a problem."
- That's where MeetingManager's remote monitoring capabilities help the support team to keep the classroom equipment operational, properly maintained and confidently secured. The MeetingManager program resides on the university's local network, where it can communicate via dedicated IP addresses with all network-connected devices. The software can be programmed to instantly alert members of the team of a glitch with equipment, unauthorized use or possible theft. Everything occurs instantaneously, rather than having to wait a few days or weeks to hear from instructors or students that something is not working or is perhaps missing or stolen.
- "Traditionally, if something related to the equipment in the room did not work, the instructors would more than likely throw up their hands and move on with the lesson without it," Dombrowski said. "It could be days or even weeks later, that we discovered the problem.
- "With our current number of people on staff, this felt a little overwhelming at times - to assist instructors, design and specify equipment, and maintain it all," he added. "The AMX control system and MeetingManager software really simplifies and unifies everything. I also like that the system can be customized and able to accomplish exactly what I want it to do. We've been extremely happy with the results."
- According to Wise, MeetingManager practically eliminates any downtime because it continues tracking networked devices 24/7, even when a support team member is unavailable due to sickness or leave.
- "The monitoring capabilities are never lost," Wise said. "It's seamless, viable operation. MeetingManager gives you what you want, when you want it and where you want it. It's been a lifesaver. That's been our experience with AMX."
- Dombrowski and Wise worked together to spearhead the support team's initial research of control system options back in 1998.
- "We found the technology that competed with AMX just didn't make sense," Dombrowski said. "It didn't have the overall functionality and programming capability that we wanted with AMX. Nothing else appeared as reliable or simple."
- That philosophy remains visibly evident today in the support team's design of the AMX touch panel pages. By providing a gateway for instructors to fully embrace the in-room technology, the goal was to deliver a look and feel that was easy and not at all intimidating. In fact, the installation is so seamless and user-friendly that the support team coordinates one touch panel training session for instructors at the start of each semester. That's all it takes and all that is needed.
- "Once we show how easy it is, the instructors realize they have nothing to be afraid of," Dombrowski said. "Plus, they all enjoy using it and find the overall design of the pages appealing to look at."
Touch Panel Appeal
- An AMX panel sits on the podium at the head of each room. The on-screen icons are positioned in exactly the same way for standard operation: volume controls along the left side, microphone control at the top left, laptop/VCR/DVD inputs across the top, environmental controls (lights and projection screen) at the top right, and system off/projector mute buttons at the lower right. Also included is a projection status button, the current date and time. This standardized design of the panels in every room promises a virtually non-existent learning curve for the instructors.
- "Prior to the AMX panels, we were dealing with what we called a 'simple manual system' - punching up zones on push-buttons," Wise said. "It was nowhere as intuitive as AMX or as simple to use for the non-technical professor. When we brought in AMX control and MeetingManager, my mind started racing with all the possibilities. This has and will continue to help our classroom media support efforts immensely."
