Canterbury Christ Church University – Lecture Theatres Upgraded With AVOIP
£1.4m AV-over-IP system transforms Building 2 with innovative technology enabling flexible classroom configurations and social distancing compliance
AV Refresh
Based in Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University is undergoing an extensive, multi-year redevelopment, creating contemporary spaces for learning, teaching and research that combines new buildings and existing spaces across the UNESCO World Heritage Site campus.
As part of this £150 million investment is an audio visual upgrade within Building 2, which is home to science, technology, health, engineering and medicine courses. Following previously successful work on Building 1, Strive AV returned to Canterbury Christ Church University, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to implement an innovative £1.4m AV-over-IP system in Building 2, as transformation of the city campus continues.
Canterbury Christ Church University's Building 2 project has seen the city campus transformed with a stunning new building featuring state-of-the-art facilities. The £65 million building brings together engineers, scientists, doctors and healthcare students in an inspirational learning environment, with industry-standard, high-tech facilities on each of its three floors. It provides space for research, experimentation, industry collaboration and so much more.
Project Brief
Strive AV's project brief was to implement an AV system employing the latest technologies to facilitate a new style of classroom learning. Strive AV's design implementation of a new to market AV over IP system to sit on CCCU's existing network won approval from the client with project award in August 2020.
This design negated the need in most spaces for traditional video switching and allowed teaching spaces to be joined together with ease, transmitting video, audio, control and USB to other classrooms, and potentially other buildings, from a single teaching space.
Project Challenges
Strive AV's in-house infrastructure teams in conjunction with the technical project manager and systems integration team worked with the client to advise on the network infrastructure required for an AV over IP system.
However, the first challenge upon arriving on site was that the network cable schematics deployed by the project management team at Canterbury Christ Church University wasn't followed by the contractor, leaving all floor connection points fed from different network switch stacks to the wall connection points in any given room. With this implementation, it would leave all multicast streams traversing the core, threatening a level of network degradation (due to required bandwidth) unacceptable by the university. With the aid of the university's and Strive AV's infrastructure teams, a design was implemented to create a multi-floor sister stack to combat this issue.
Key Challenges
- •Network infrastructure not installed according to schematics
- •Risk of multicast streams traversing core network causing degradation
- •Implementation during COVID-19 pandemic requiring revised timelines
- •Need to create multi-floor sister stack solution
The Solution
AV-over-IP Technology
Innovative AV-over-IP system sitting on CCCU's existing network, eliminating need for traditional video switching in most spaces.
Flexible Classroom Connectivity
Teaching spaces can be joined together with ease, transmitting video, audio, control and USB to other classrooms and potentially other buildings.
Network Infrastructure
Multi-floor sister stack solution implemented to combat network infrastructure challenges and ensure optimal performance.
Equipment Installed
Project Outcomes
Enhanced Teaching & Learning
- AV-over-IP technology enables flexible classroom configurations
- Social distancing compliance through multiple classroom teaching
- Single teaching space can transmit to multiple classrooms and buildings
- Building 2 opened in January 2021 as valuable addition to university estate
Operational Benefits
- High-quality teaching and learning experiences maintained during pandemic
- Innovative AV-over-IP system facilitates new style of classroom learning
- Successfully delivered despite COVID-19 pandemic challenges
- Network infrastructure solution ensures optimal performance
"The Strive AV team worked really closely with us to ensure that we were able to deliver the building in the new revised time scale [due to covid]. Having worked with Strive AV on this project for the past two years, I would definitely recommend them across the industry to deliver this kind of project from initial engagement through to project management and final implementation we're extremely pleased with the outcome"
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