University of Bristol Dental School: Case Study

AV INSTALLED

Epson projectors

Extron control and speakers

Screen Int projector screens

Sennheiser mics

OneLan players

Ecler speakers

Logitech Meetup and Rally cameras

Top-Tec lecterns, mounts and desks

iiyama displays

Sony BRAVIAs

Crestron DM-NVX

Lumens PTZ

​​​​​​​Audio visual case study university of bristol

Opened in September 2023, The University of Bristol’s £36 million Dental School is a new purpose-designed state-of-the-art facility that will provide training for the next generation of oral healthcare professionals, as well as seeing up to 60,000 patients pass through its doors each year.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Over 7,300sqm and six floors, the former NatWest building has been repurposed from existing offices, creating a mix of clinical, meeting, study, teaching and shared social spaces for staff and students. Migrating from the previous location within Bristol Dental Hospital after 80 years, the new facility becomes one of the first buildings to open in the University’s new Temple Quarter Enterprise Campus.

Bristol Dental School

To supplement the Dental School’s class-leading training facilities, an array of audio visual solutions were designed and installed by GVAV across a total of 17 spaces to meet the requirements of both staff and students.

With the project running behind the initial program, GVAV were able to find pragmatic scheduling solutions by leveraging good planning, an excellent relationship with the client and decades of industry experience. Once the space was ready for the audio visual work to be carried out in Summer 2023, the GV South West team worked closely alongside other contractors on this innovative and ambitious project to ensure it would be ready for the new academic year to begin.

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Shared spaces and digital signage

Throughout the building, warm and welcoming shared social spaces with kitchen facilities have been curated by the University to break from the austere nature of the clinical areas. On the ground floor, the Staff and Student Café provides a space to relax, socialise and to host student events.

Audio options at the presenter’s disposal include a selection of Sennheiser handheld or lapel mics which are docked on the lectern. Extron FFT 220T ceiling speakers run throughout the space, relaying audio with clarity and even dispersion. An Extron button panel makes controlling the system effortless, with simple controls to switch the main display on and off, or switch between wired inputs.

Epson projector in the University of BristolAt the front of the Café, a Top-Tec-mounted Epson EB-L630U HD projector provides high quality visuals for presentations, turning the room into an adaptable multi-use space. From the teaching station, users are able to simply arrive with their own device and begin showing content through the projector via a choice of inputs. A Screen Int electric projector screen is mounted to the ceiling, allowing natural light to come through the frosted window when the projector is not in use.

Extron button panel

Four ancillary signage displays are mounted around the room, displaying important information for student convenience. These 50” Sony BRAVIA screens are fed by a TriplePlay OneLan player, giving the client the flexibility to update the content in-house when required.

"The project completion date slipped several times landing us in the middle of the summer holidays. Anyone working in the AV industry knows how busy this period is, and it was only one of the many projects we had GVAV working on at the time.

Project plans were rescheduled and GVAV were able to stay on top of this heavy workload completing all projects on time which is an incredible accomplishment."

Daniel Studd | AV Officer, University of Bristol

Meeting and tutorial rooms

An important requirement for the Dental School project was to provide the client with a number of functional, user-friendly rooms throughout the building that allow for in-person and remote participation.

Meeting room at University of Bristol Dental School

For these smaller classroom-style spaces that feature a display screen and button panel, Ecler AUDEO106 speakers are mounted at the front of the room to relay audio from the main teaching input device. Featuring a 6.5” woofer and 1" tweeter, these loudspeaker cabinets were the perfect choice for room-filling audio whilst keeping with the sleek monochrome aesthetic of the rooms’ other fittings.

PTZ cameraThe meeting rooms that require hybrid and lecture capture capabilities are fitted with Logitech Meetup Conference Cameras with built-in speakers and microphone array. Auto pan and zoom technology ensures that everybody in the room is captured through its wide-angle lens, resulting in more immersive and engaging meetings. These all-in-one devices are mounted above the room’s display for maximum coverage across the room.

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Other teaching spaces such as the tutorial room on the first floor feature front-facing 4K Logitech Rally PTZ cameras. Pointing downwards when switched off for privacy reassurance, the Rally Camera uses Logitech’s RightSight technology to automatically reframe, adjusting to changes in the surroundings. This dynamic Tutorial Room has been designed to split into two smaller spaces with a divider in the middle, or even link up as one larger room depending on the scheduling requirements of the University.

The main teaching display in these tutorial rooms is the 86” iiyama ProLite touchscreen. With 1mm touch accuracy, this 4K interactive display offers annotation features, making sessions more engaging and productive.

Explorer lecterns from Top-Tec add to the streamlined aesthetic of these tutorial rooms, with Extron MLC Plus 200 Controllers integrated to allow teaching staff seamless connectivity from their laptop via an HDMI cable.

Practical learning spaces

Bristol Dental School’s move to a bigger, improved facility has meant that they are able to expand their courses and increase student capacity. This is thanks to spaces like the Clinical Skills Lab, a state-of-the-art practical learning facility on the second floor. In this room, 5-seater pods allow for collaborative or independent working, creating almost 50 learning stations, giving students access to some of the most up-to-date learning equipment to aid their training and research.

Bristol Dental School

Teaching staff can make use of the 75” iiyama ProLite interactive touchscreen as the main display for presentations in this room. Given the size of the space and the apparatus within it obscuring direct view, there was also a requirement to repeat the content around the room so students were able to see key information without obstruction.

Crestron controllerStaff can control which content is beamed across the room’s repeater displays via a Crestron controller from the teaching station. Input options include the University PC, HDMI via a laptop, or from one of the two integrated Lumens document cameras. Crestron DM-NVX-351 encoder/decoders work behind the scenes on each workstation. These devices are responsible for handling video over the network to ensure it is relayed to each monitor without latency.

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Another key practical learning area has been integrated upstairs on the third floor.

With phantom heads and cutting-edge training equipment on each work station, the Prosthetic Training Lab offers both a realistic practice environment for students and an essential space to get support from teaching staff.

A Lumens VC-A52S PTZ camera has been installed for lecture capture. With 20x optical zoom, this camera is more than capable of picking up subjects from a distance while retaining full definition, making it the perfect solution for this large space.

Audio visual at Bristol Dental SchoolTwo Top-Tec-mounted Epson EB-L630U projectors provide crystal clear visuals for students at the front of the room onto remote controlled Screen International electric projector screens. Once again, staff have a choice of microphone options from Sennheiser lapel or handheld mics complete with battery and charging packs, as well as an Audio-Technica boundary mic built into the Top-Tec Rubi teaching station alongside a WolfVision visualiser. Sound reinforcement is via the Extron ceiling speakers. Repeater displays are suspended from the ceiling around the room for maximum visibility.

Computer assisted learning spaces

As well as tutorial and practical learning spaces, the new Dental building accommodates space for independent learning. Two multi-purpose interactive computer rooms provide essential quiet zones for self-study as well as group work.

On the fifth floor, 17 Top-Tec synergy desks are integrated with 43” Sony Bravia displays and HDMI inputs to create breakout spaces for dozens of pupils at a time. The desks are designed to quickly transform between computer workspace and writing surface at the pull of a lever.

A smaller computer room has been created on the second floor with desks reused from the old facility inside Bristol Dental Hospital. In each of these spaces, iiyama ProLite touchscreens are mounted to the wall for teaching purposes, as well as the standard selection of portable Sennheiser microphones. More Extron FF 220T ceiling speakers are installed for audio in each room alongside Logitech Rally Cameras for lecture capture.

Computer assisted learning lab at Bristol Dental School

“

GVAV have excelled themselves in the delivery of the new Dental School project. I have received numerous compliments about the AV systems provided and a lot of praise for the professionalism with which the GVAV installation teams conducted themselves. 

A big thank you to everyone who worked on this project, we could not be happier with your work. the new Dental school is a shining example of the high quality work GVAV deliver to us on a regular basis.

Daniel Studd

AV Officer, University of Bristol

Braced for the future

GVAV worked alongside the client and other key contractors to help deliver this class-leading facility, kick-starting a new era for dentistry at the University. Led by Sales Director Richard Godfrey and Technical Project Manager Ashley Gunter, the GV South West Team embraced the size and ambition of the project requirements to develop a complete solution that meets the needs of the Dental School as both a training facility and a care provider.

Bristol Dental School

The University of Bristol’s forward-thinking and world-leading approach to dentistry training will bring much needed opportunities for students in an industry with notoriously high demand and limited capacity. The new facilities and the AV solutions within will help encourage the next wave of professionals to start their career in a key sector of the health service while providing essential care to local residents for years to come.

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