CQUniversity, Australia

The Opportunity

With campuses across 25 locations in Australia, CQUniversity offers undergraduate, postgraduate, short courses and certificates in engineering, information technology, business and visual arts, among others. As a pioneer in the field of collaborative learning, many of CQUniversity’s campuses are home to multi-pod collaborative classrooms. Integrated with video conferencing facilities that enable high-definition audio and video connectivity, the classrooms allow students to connect with lecturers across CQU’s network of campuses. Wanting to future-proof the in-classroom technology and enhance its next-generation learning environment, CQU needed state-of-the-art AV and control systems that provide students an engaging, multidimensional learning experience.

The Solution

To meet these goals, the university hired Videopro to design and install a cutting-edge HARMAN Professional AV and control solution that includes AMX networked media and control systems. The AMX SVSi N1000 Series encoder/decoders were integrated with NetLinx NX Controllers and Modero G5 Touch Panels. The N1000 Series provides highly flexible network customization features. It allows video and audio to be packetized into a standard IP format to distribute content via standard network infrastructure. The AMX NetLinx NX Integrated Controllers provide secure machine-to-machine communication and automation, while the ultra-low-profile Modero G5 Touch Panels provide a fully customized, ultra-simple user interface for the teachers using these complex spaces.

The Impact

“The university’s new collaborative learning environment required a robust, integrated, networked AV system for content distribution within the classroom. A primary requirement was that the solution be able to provide application-level visibility, monitoring, and traffic control to the IT team,” said Scott Maunsell, Account Manager and Programmer, Videopro. “We chose the AMX SVSi N1000 Series Conference Room Solution with the VLAN tagging feature. VLAN tagging allows for labelling packets of AV data with a specific VLAN number/ID, thereby allowing network administrators to regulate switches to allow or disallow traffic flow from one VLAN to other ports. This resulted in superior content distribution and enterprise-grade remote management of AV data from various VLANs across multiple campuses.”

“It was essential for CQUniversity to bring content closer to students, and provide our IT team full visibility, execute remote configuration, track performance and troubleshoot issues remotely. We wanted a simple-to-deploy digital media distribution and switching solution that has the ability to direct any source stream to any display,” said Phil Greig, Teaching Space Technology Coordinator, CQUniversity. “We’ve been able to make significant strides in advancing our efforts to establish a flexible, functional, feature-rich AV system, and are extremely satisfied with the support and commitment from Videopro and HARMAN Professional Solutions.”