Sacré Cœur is a Catholic Independent School for girls from Prep to Year 12. This year, they are proud to celebrate 126 years of Sacred Heart Education at their Burke Road, Glen Iris location.
Almost a year ago, discussions between DIB Australia and the school began over the redevelopment of a classroom space into a theatre, to be named The Duchesne Theatre. Sacré Cœur’s AV Technician, Stephen Benko said, “We wanted a theatre that would utilise the standard easy-to-use setup for presentation spaces; the sort with which DIB has helped us in the past.” DIB Australia mentioned lecture capture technology which immediately piqued the school’s interest. There were clear benefits with this system for teachers’ professional development and self-reflection of teaching practices.
The school project-managed the job and DIB Australia worked in conjunction with them to ascertain the location of all of the equipment – even ensuring that the lights were switched off in a certain manner to help enhance the performance of the space. They decided to install the DiscoveryLab HD Recorder system, which would allow for two methods of capture:
1. Professional Development Capture
This is where a camera is installed to record the front of the room (including the teacher/presenter, whiteboard/projector screen). Another camera is installed to record the students/audience. This can all be stored onto a USB memory stick, with the images side by side so that the teacher can play back in their own time what happened in the space and can conduct some self-evaluation of performance.
2. Lecture Capture
This is a more traditional type of lecture capture – the technology records in full high definition the original screen content of whatever the teacher/presenter is using. For example, a laptop connected via a VGA or HDMI cable captures that screen content as the background and then puts a picture-in-picture insert from the camera that looks at the front of the room. Ultimately the user not only has a recording of the content and all the audio but the visual presentation of the presenter, too.
The installed Canon Wide Angle PTZ (pan, tilt, zoom) camera, positioned to record the front of the room, is adjustable. It can be adjusted to pre-set positions so that the school can have different configurations for the room. All of this is managed via a Crestron colour touch screen control that also gives user feedback in the form of a picture of what the camera is seeing and confirms that there is audio being recorded via an audio level indicator. Dual ceiling suspended microphones were installed to pick up both the students’ and teacher’s communication. Handheld microphones were also provided with the system.
DIB Australia also fitted out the Duchesne Theatre with ‘traditional’ lecture theatre equipment so that it could function as a normal theatre when not lecture capturing. This included a Grandview 130” Motorised Smart Screen with an Epson EB-1945W, 4200 ANSI lumen projector. A Joey Micro 9 simplifies the operation of the whole AV setup. Two Impact 65T loudspeakers were installed on either side of the room to provide high quality sound reproduction, as well as two high quality fully baffled ceiling speakers for the rear of the theatre. Baffled ceiling speakers reduce the spread of audio into surrounding areas via the ceiling cavity. A Lectrum L20S lectern with fold-out laptop shelf and a built-in microphone were also included.
Stephen Benko says, “The Duchesne Theatre ticks all of the boxes from a user standpoint and has all of the features necessary to constitute an effective presentation space. Importantly, it is an easy-to-use space – perfect for the busy end-user. The lecture capture technology (the control panel for which is intuitive and so simple to use) is unobtrusive and does not detract from the aesthetics of the space, which is important for a newly renovated room.” The following video is of a test recording for a classroom PD capture system (not recorded at Sacre Couer) http://youtu.be/tcvupejteDs The Crestron capture HD control panel user interface – brief video: http://youtu.be/yKSz-hmrsg4 The Crestron capture HD control panel ADMIN interface – brief video: http://youtu.be/fROY-QuOE1Q
Crestron lecture / PD capture control panel
Lecture Theatre Capture system AV rack
Sacre Couer Lecture Capture theatre
Canon lecture capture PTZ camera
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