Q-SYS Lecture Theatre Upgrades at a London University

Q: How can students with hearing loss follow a lecture without a hearing loop?

Both rooms use a Sennheiser MobileConnect Connect Station, which streams the room audio over Wi-Fi to an app on students' own smartphones, so there are no receivers to hand out and charge. Some rooms still need an induction loop as well; see hearing loops.

Two raked lecture theatres (194 and 157 seats) at a London university rebuilt on Q-SYS, with twin laser projection, PTZ lecture capture and wireless mics.

Education

Completed September 2026

Project leadDavid Corker, Technical Sales Director

Quick reference: Two raked lecture theatres at a London university, 194 and 157 seats, upgraded side by side in September 2026 to one standard: twin screens fed by Epson EB-PU1008W 8,500 lumen laser projectors, a Q-SYS Core 8 Flex with seven Q-SYS NV network video endpoints, a Q-SYS NC-12x80 PTZ camera for lecture capture, a Q-SYS TSC-101-G3 touch panel, Shure MXW wireless mics, a Beyerdynamic lectern array mic, Sennheiser MobileConnect assistive listening and a Teammate Educator 3 twin lectern in each room.

Two raked lecture theatres rebuilt around Q-SYS

Strive AV upgraded two raked lecture theatres for a London university in September 2026, one with 194 seats and one with 157. Both rooms were rebuilt to the same standard so lecturers find the same lectern, touch panel and sources whichever theatre they teach in. Each now has a Teammate Educator 3 twin lectern with a 14U rack, a Q-SYS Core 8 Flex running audio, video and control, Q-SYS network video endpoints, a PTZ camera for lecture capture, new microphones and loudspeakers, and assistive listening that streams to students' own phones. The smaller room also received two new Epson EB-PU1008W laser projectors; the larger room's matching pair had been fitted by Strive AV earlier in 2026 as an urgent replacement. Two engineering teams installed both rooms in parallel over three days from 14 September 2026.

Twin projection screens on the front wall of a raked university lecture theatre, fed by ceiling-mounted Epson laser projectors

View from the back of the raked lecture theatre showing tiered seating, two ceiling projectors and the PTZ lecture capture camera

Epson EB-PU1008W 8,500 lumen laser projector on a ceiling mount, with the Q-SYS PTZ camera behind

The brief: two rooms, one standard, every lecture captured

Both rooms are deep, raked lecture theatres used for teaching and recorded lectures, and both had to be upgraded at the same time. The brief asked for a lot from one lectern. Lecturers needed to show the room PC, a laptop, a visualiser and wireless content on either of the two projection screens, and preview what each screen was showing. Every session needed to be capturable, with a camera on the lecturer and clear audio. Students with hearing loss needed a way to hear the lecture. And the two rooms had to work the same way, so any lecturer could walk into either one and run it from a single touch panel.

Key Requirements

•Upgrade two lecture theatres at once to one standard design
•Show any source on either of two projection screens, with a preview of each
•Accept the room PC, laptops, a visualiser and wireless sharing
•Capture the lecturer on camera and in clear audio for recorded lectures
•Give students with hearing loss assistive listening without extra receivers
•Run each room from one touch panel at the lectern

What went in

Each room has a Teammate Educator 3 twin lectern with an 1800mm height-adjustable worktop and a 14U rack housing a Q-SYS Core 8 Flex, a Netgear M4250 PoE++ switch and a Gude switched and metered PDU with a humidity sensor. Video is distributed over the network by three Q-SYS NV-32-H and four Q-SYS NV-21-HU endpoints per room, feeding two Epson EB-PU1008W 8,500 lumen laser projectors on twin screens. A WolfVision Cynap Pure Mini provides wireless sharing and an NEC M432 43 inch display acts as a confidence monitor. A Q-SYS NC-12x80 PTZ camera on a ceiling bracket frames the lecturer for lecture capture, with a busy light that shows when a session is recording. For audio, a Beyerdynamic Revoluto RM30 array microphone sits on the lectern and a four-channel Shure MXW system gives lecturers wireless microphones with a networked charging station. An Extron XPA U 1004 amplifier drives Ecler ARQIS106i loudspeakers and Extron SF 3CT low-profile ceiling speakers, and a Sennheiser MobileConnect Connect Station streams the room audio to students' smartphones. Two Atlona OCS-900N occupancy sensors and Q-SYS I/O expanders complete the control system, all run from a Q-SYS TSC-101-G3 touch panel. The 194-seat room adds a Catchbox Plus Pro with a Dante receiver for audience questions, a Lightware Taurus UCX-4x2 for USB-C and HDMI laptops, a WolfVision VZ-3neo.UHD visualiser and a Magewell USB capture device.

Two lecture theatres, one standard
Area	194-seat theatre	157-seat theatre
Projection	2 x Epson EB-PU1008W 8,500 lumen laser (fitted earlier in 2026)	2 x Epson EB-PU1008W 8,500 lumen laser (new)
Processing and control	Q-SYS Core 8 Flex, TSC-101-G3 touch panel	Q-SYS Core 8 Flex, TSC-101-G3 touch panel
Video distribution	Q-SYS NV-32-H (3), NV-21-HU (4), Lightware Taurus UCX-4x2	Q-SYS NV-32-H (3), NV-21-HU (4)
Lecture capture	Q-SYS NC-12x80 PTZ camera, Magewell USB capture, busy light	Q-SYS NC-12x80 PTZ camera, busy light
Microphones	Beyerdynamic RM30, Shure MXW (4 channel), Catchbox Plus Pro on Dante	Beyerdynamic RM30, Shure MXW (4 channel)
Presentation	WolfVision Cynap Pure Mini, VZ-3neo.UHD visualiser	WolfVision Cynap Pure Mini
Assistive listening	Sennheiser MobileConnect	Sennheiser MobileConnect
Lectern	Teammate Educator 3 twin, 1800mm, 14U rack	Teammate Educator 3 twin, 1800mm, 14U rack

Featured Solution

One standard, two rooms

Both theatres share the same lectern, Q-SYS design and touch panel layout, so lecturers can teach in either without relearning the room.

Q-SYS at the core

A Q-SYS Core 8 Flex in each room runs audio, video and control, with seven Q-SYS NV network video endpoints and a TSC-101-G3 touch panel.

Twin laser projection

Two Epson EB-PU1008W 8,500 lumen laser projectors per room fill the twin screens, with an NEC 43 inch confidence monitor at the lectern.

Capture and access

A Q-SYS NC-12x80 PTZ camera frames the lecturer, Shure MXW and a Beyerdynamic array mic carry the voice, and Sennheiser MobileConnect streams audio to students' phones.

Questions about these lecture theatres

What AV does a university lecture theatre need for lecture capture?

At minimum: a camera on the lecturer, microphones that pick up the lecturer clearly, and a clean feed of the content into the capture system. In these two London lecture theatres that means a Q-SYS NC-12x80 PTZ camera, a lectern array mic and Shure MXW wireless mics, all mixed in a Q-SYS Core 8 Flex, with a busy light that shows when a session is recording. More on lecture theatre AV.

Why build every lecture theatre to the same AV standard?

Lecturers move between rooms. When the lectern, touch panel and sources are laid out the same way in every theatre, nobody has to relearn the room before a lecture, and support staff can fix any room with the same spares and know-how. Here a 194-seat and a 157-seat theatre were built to one Q-SYS design and installed side by side in three days.

How can students with hearing loss follow a lecture without a hearing loop?

Both rooms use a Sennheiser MobileConnect Connect Station, which streams the room audio over Wi-Fi to an app on students' own smartphones, so there are no receivers to hand out and charge. Some rooms still need an induction loop as well; see hearing loops.

How do audience questions get into a recorded lecture?

A throwable microphone is the simplest answer. In the larger theatre a Catchbox Plus Pro with a Dante receiver connects straight into the Q-SYS audio network, so a student's question is heard in the room and captured in the recording without anyone repeating it.