The Importance of Intuitive Design

VisionPoint has had several opportunities to work with educational institutions in the past, designing solutions that assist students and educators in the classroom. More recently, we helped the Canterbury School upgrade one of their lecture halls.

The Challenge

When we first started having conversations with Canterbury, it was clear that they were frustrated with their current integrator. A new building has been built on campus where they relocated several of their administrative offices and added new classrooms and lecture halls. The technology was there, but they were poorly integrated with a lack of intuitive controls for its users.

VisionPoint was commissioned to develop an intuitive design that made use of the wall-mounted projector already in place; along with enabling wireless presentation capabilities to add more flexibility.

The Design

Simplicity and non-invasive solutions became the sole-focus of this design. VisionPoint engineering recommended to add a Crestron AirMedia Presentation Gateway for wireless presentation, and an HDMI Surface Mount near the Lecture Hall’s Podium for wired presentation. Since Cable TV and Blu-Ray sources were already available, we included a Digital Video Switcher that allows users to select a source using a wall-mounted control panel in the front of the classroom.

Apart from a custom-programmed touch control panel, the design also included remote control/management for the AV/IT team, as requested. This allows for Canterbury School and VisionPoint personnel to remotely support the space.

The Result

A few weeks after installation, we received some praise from the Canterbury School’s Support staff about our intuitive design. Before, apart from the projector, there was no integrated technology available for students and staff to present. The previous capabilities were very limited, and archaic by today’s standards.

Students and Teachers can now enjoy, wireless presentation through Air Media and the ability to display content from various sources using the projector and the loudspeakers that were originally available. Canterbury School’s support staff can adjust the settings, and troubleshoot remotely, which is a big help for their staff as they are managing several buildings on campus on any given day. At the very least, VisionPoint Support can always manage/control the system remotely via web portal miles away in Newington.

Canterbury School now enjoys a fully integrated AV system in their lecture hall, with intuitive controls and non-invasive design.