Caulfield Grammar School is an inclusive learning provider based in East St. Kilda. The school’s been serving its community for over 100 years and has been at its current site for 101 years. It offers state of the art facilities for students in years 7 through to 12.
To support teaching that is truly relevant to the world of today, they have built strong links with Nanjing, China to ensure that 300 Year 9 students get to take part in activities on the mainland.
In keeping with their commitment to delivering excellence in education, the school recently redeveloped their administrative building. In the heart of this lies a modern space for meetings and video conferencing. This led to the school deciding to open up this space for more effective meetings with projection and audio visual technology.
The job was not entirely straightforward. In keeping with the building’s usage, it was necessary to maintain the style and appearance of the room, whilst providing an AV solution that could “disappear” when not in use. In particular there was a focus on keeping wires to a minimum so that the floor space wasn’t encumbered by a maze of cables. Desks were also to be kept free of cabling so that there was no sign of wiring dangling from them.
One especially challenging problem was that in order to store the AV system the cabinets needed to be able to fold out into the room. However, that meant the doors were in danger of damaging the screen when it was in position for projection. The cabinet was constructed with sensors that prevent the doors from being opened when the screen is in place. The screen was also recessed to offer optimal placement.
The school chose to go with the Epson EB-G5450WU and this was supported on a lift mechanism that allows it to be withdrawn into the ceiling so it remains unobtrusive when not in use. It has an added benefit that it also keeps the unit secure so that it remains at much less risk of damage or theft when the building is not staffed. The room also has quite a bit of ambient light but this problem was resolved by the projector’s power. The projector is fully HD compliant so that if and when the school upgrades to HD Video Cameras, it will be able to support that use.
There’s a central control system that allows for the easy integration of a variety of input methods, and importantly it supports the wireless integration of iPads so that it’s easy for staff to get working quickly and deliver presentations without technical fuss.
The Bose sound system makes it easy for someone to be heard throughout the environment and to supplement their talks with audio clips.
Importantly the whole system was able to support the existing Video Conferencing solution from Tandberg, to keep additional costs at a minimum.
Overall, Caulfield Grammar School has a system that makes meetings simple to conduct, and for people to see and hear exactly what they should. When it’s not in use the room is easy to use for any other purpose as the equipment remains hidden and secure.
The Epson EB-G5450WU supported on a lift mechanism
Meeting room space at Caulfield Grammar School