De Montfort University: Gateway House

AV INSTALLED

TeamMate cluster desks

TeamMate collaborative tables

TeamMate lecterns

Crestron control

WolfVision visualisers

Sony displays

Shure ceiling mics

Sennheiser wireless mics

Extron pendant speakers

Extron switching

Gude PDU

Mersive wireless sharing

Jabra video bar

​​​​​​​De Montfort University audio visual case study​​​​​​​

De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester have undertaken a large-scale refurbishment of multiple floors within their Gateway House building, the home of the Faculty of Technology. This 2024 project saw the integration of new audio visual equipment, furniture and systems throughout some of the building’s key learning and meeting spaces by GVAV.

De Montfort University Gateway House

A variety of room types have been upgraded including meeting spaces, standard teaching rooms, a collaboration space and clustered teaching rooms. TeamMate AV furniture has been integrated as the default in all spaces, with Kobi tables used in meeting rooms and collaborative spaces, Obelisk cluster desks in IT rooms, and Educator lecterns for all teaching spaces.

Coordinating complex works alongside scheduled teaching and exams was a challenge, with phased access granted as and when spaces were handed over to the contractor. With a good working relationship with both the contractor (Charles Henry & Sons) and the client, GVAV’s Technical Team were able to work flexibly while navigating a strict installation window in a live campus environment.

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IT Spaces

Featuring TeamMate Obelisk hexagonal cluster desks each supporting up to six students, Gateway House’s IT spaces have been redesigned to facilitate both individual and group learning.

At the front of each room, a 7” Crestron touch panel integrated within the TeamMate Educator lectern allows teaching staff control of various inputs. These include the room’s main PC, a WolfVision vSolution Visualiser, or laptop input with HDMI and USB-C options. Once selected, the source is then visible to the room’s main Sony BRAVIA displays, as well as repeating to each workstation.

As the Obelisk desks support dual-stacked displays, awkward viewing angles are circumvented to allow every student a perfect view of the teaching content. The lower display acts as a personal workstation screen, while the upper display can mirror content from the main teaching input. GVAV worked closely with the client and furniture manufacturer TeamMate to ensure a smooth installation and integration with the new AV kit.

Audio can be captured via a selection of Sennheiser wireless microphones available from the teaching lectern, as well as Shure MXA920 ceiling mics. The audio is sent to the room’s PC for lecture capture as well as routed back into the room through suspended Extron pendant speakers.

Gude power distribution has been included in these spaces, giving DMU’s IT and Support teams the ability to power off devices when not in use, or to reboot hardware remotely. This solution can be deployed to help the University reduce their carbon footprint and cut expenditure on energy.

DMU Gateway House audio visual

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Collaborative Learning Space

Designed to support interactive learning, Gateway House’s new collaborative space features a flexible AV setup that allows students to engage in both instructor-led and group learning sessions.

As in the IT spaces, a TeamMate Educator lectern is the room’s teaching hub, allowing staff full control of the available peripherals via a Crestron control panel. As well as HDMI and USB-C inputs, a WolfVision visualiser has been integrated along with Sennheiser wireless microphones for presentations. Gude power distribution has also been deployed in this space.

Integrated with a shared display and power sockets for each user, the room’s TeamMate Kobi tables can seat up to 8 people for collaborative group work, presentations and breakout groups. These multi-functional tables are each integrated with wired sharing options as well as a Mersive Solstice device, allowing students to effortlessly share work wirelessly from any device using technology like AirPlay and Miracast.

From the lectern, teaching staff can choose to switch the view for students between a local source from the group’s table or to repeat the teaching input, making presentations visible for all students.

Each Kobi table is mounted with a Sony BRAVIA 65” display for clear, vibrant visuals while reducing distracting reflections in this naturally bright room. As well as the Sennheiser microphone options available to the lecturer, audio within space is captured via a suspended Shure MXA920 microphone for voice lift and relayed through the suspended Extron pendant speakers. This is an important feature of this large room, meaning the presenter can be heard by all students. This audio is also used for lecture capture.

Collaborative space at De Montfort University Leicester

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BYOM Meeting Rooms

As well as large shared spaces, smaller meeting rooms have also been installed within Gateway House. Once again, TeamMate Kobi tables have been integrated with power and connectivity, as well as a mounted Sony BRAVIA display and Mersive Solstice for wireless content sharing.

Each meeting room has been designed the same with only the display and table dimensions changing as appropriate to the size of the space, accommodating a mix of 10, 6, or 4 people.

The requirement for these spaces was to allow students and staff to meet both in person and with remote participants. Users would need to be able to walk into a space with their own device and connect to a video call with simplicity. To facilitate this, Jabra PanaCast 50 all-in-one video bar devices have been deployed in each room, offering seamless panoramic 4K visuals from its three cameras, four powerful inbuilt speakers and beamforming 8-microphone technology.

Each space has been configured as a ‘Bring Your Own Meeting’ (BYOM) room. A local PC with wireless mouse and keyboard option is available to users, as well as USB-C and HDMI inputs so video calls can be hosted from a user’s device within the room via an Extron UCS 303 Presentation Switcher.

Coupled with a full 180° view of the room, the PanaCast 50’s smart features such as Dynamic Composition offering a choice of participant views, as well as Intelligent Zoom for automatic framing, bring a fully immersive experience to Gateway House’s meeting rooms. The systems in these rooms have been designed for more collaborative and productive meetings with simple connectivity options.

DMU meeting rooms audio visual set up

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Teaching Rooms

Gateway House’s standard teaching rooms have also been upgraded with new AV systems. Each room’s TeamMate Educator lectern provides teaching staff with PC, visualiser and laptop inputs via HDMI and USB-C. The selected source is then visible to the room’s main BRAVIA displays of various quantity depending on the room size and requirements.

Desk and ceiling microphones have been installed for lecture capture and voice lift within the space. A variety of Extron speakers have been installed in these spaces including ceiling-mounted, cabinet, pendant, and lay-in-grid speakers. Extron’s diverse speaker range allows for a bespoke solution to be tailored for each space regardless of size or ceiling construction.

“

“This was a very challenging project with tight deadlines, but we’re extremely pleased with the results and grateful to GVAV for their support throughout. 

Matt Price and the rest of the GVAV team handled every challenge thrown their way, delivering a first-rate set of spaces. The new installations have been well received by our staff and students, with staff wanting to reschedule existing classes into the new ones before we’d even finished commissioning them!””

Mark Simmonds

Multimedia Operations Manager, De Montfort University

De Montfort University audio visual case study

Upgrading learning spaces at DMU

Working closely alongside the main contractor and the client on this project, the GVAV Midlands team have designed and installed new AV systems built around TeamMate collaborative furniture that will help facilitate a variety of teaching and learning types throughout Gateway House.

The building’s upgraded spaces incorporate technology such as wireless content sharing, hybrid meeting facilities and power distribution to create new forward-thinking, collaborative spaces for their students.

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