Warwick Business School: Meeting room upgrades in The Shard with the Jabra PanaCast 50

AV INSTALLED

Jabra PanaCast 50

NEC displays

Reserva room booking panels

​​​​​​​Audio visual case study swindon

Since 2015, Warwick Business School (WBS)’s satellite campus within The Shard has allowed the Business School to expand its reach, delivering tailored learning experiences inside one of the country’s most iconic landmarks.

With teaching rooms spread across the 13th and 17th floors of the London building, WBS work alongside their executive partners as well as the main University of Warwick campus to accommodate students for intensive business courses in a premium, luxury learning environment with panoramic views of the city.

Warwick Business School at The Shard​​​​​​​

In order to enhance their meeting room systems to better facilitate remote collaboration, WBS were looking to offer new hybrid options with a BYOM (bring your own meeting) solution. A total of 19 meeting rooms were earmarked for upgrades by the University across the two floors.

Having developed a long-standing relationship with GVAV across both campuses on earlier projects including two previous AV refresh cycles within this space, GVAV were appointed to supply and deliver upgraded audio visual solutions for the School’s meeting rooms in 2023.

As Technical Projects Director Matt Price explains, ease of use was just one factor that GVAV’s Midlands team took into consideration when deciding which conferencing solution to implement in these spaces, “For some, video conferencing can be difficult and stressful without AV adding to the issue. We wanted something that could be easy to interface with, that the client could easily configure on their machine via a single USB peripheral.”

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Aligning with many of the University’s other spaces in its Warwick campus, 65” 4K E-Series NEC displays were chosen for continuity as well as its quality in the upgraded meeting rooms, allowing for vibrant, clear visuals. This was an important consideration given the brightly-lit nature of the spaces, often being exposed to direct sunlight.

Integrated behind the displays in these rooms is another University staple for content sharing and casting, the WolfVision Cynap Pure. This allows multiple devices within the meeting room to connect seamlessly to the screen and display content like presentations, images or web browsing wirelessly. The simplicity of the Cynap Pure’s interface, as well as staff pre-familiarity with the device, meant that integrating it into these revamped meeting rooms was a good choice.

In order to simplify the system and reduce the overall complexity, GVAV worked with WBS to select a solution that was easy to use, and took room suitability into account in terms of acoustics and size. Rather than using individual USB peripheral devices such as camera and microphone, it was vital to be able to consolidate these features into one, easy to use, plug and play unit.

The final piece of the jigsaw was to make a decision on which device to select that incorporated these required features. In a crowded videobar market, several devices were considered, but the standout all-in-one solution was the Jabra PanaCast 50.

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Jabra PanaCast 50

Beamforming 8-mic technology and precision voice detection means the PanaCast ensures everyone in the meeting is heard with clarity, nullifying the need for further microphones throughout the room.

The PanaCast’s intelligent algorithms identify and remove residual echo and static noise for an immersive hybrid meeting experience at both ends. Four in-built powerful speakers in a zero-vibration stereo setup fill the room with ample sound.

Find out more about the PanaCast 50

As well as the industry-leading professional audio that is to be expected of a Jabra product, the Panacast 50’s three 13-megapixel cameras mean that everybody in the room can be included, bringing an unparallelled 180° field of view to the hybrid meeting experience. Jabra’s Virtual Director AI feature instantly adjusts the frame in real-time to focus only on the active speakers, meaning round-table discussions and meetings can feel natural and immersive, even for those joining remotely.

Meeting rooms in Warwick Business School's Shard campus

Jabra’s Head of Public Sector Matthew Clark explains that the manufacturer also takes great pride in the PanaCast 50’s ability to get even better over time, “we want our customers to be confident that when they invest in the PanaCast 50, it has the capability to grow with them.” He goes on to say “our aim is to ensure that the PanaCast solution is even better on the last day you used it compared to the first day you got it out the box.”

Teams and Zoom certification, as well as a host of other on-board features like Whiteboard Streaming, room analytics and Intelligent Zoom make the PanaCast 50 a feature-rich and future proofed BYOD plug and play solution, and one that was the perfect choice to roll out across Warwick Business School’s Shard campus.

Room booking panels in The ShardAs a finishing touch to the upgrades, Reserva room booking panels were installed outside the newly upgraded meeting rooms. 

With quality displays, simple wireless presentation, room booking, and an all-in one video conferencing solution integrated into each space, Warwick Business School have a comprehensive AV system to accompany the prestige of their premium location inside this iconic building.

Toni Moyela, WBS’s Operations Director in the Shard elaborates, “It’s been an easy to use solution, providing a seamless and standardised way for our users to work collaboratively and an effective solution for hybrid situations as well.”

As Toni also explains, the implementation of PanaCast 50 devices across the campus has been a useful solution for students, “we’re now able to incorporate remote users, which is one of the things we were initially looking for. In terms of the actual device, the feedback is that the quality is great, in terms of the sound and the video functionality. The device is good value for money and fit for our purposes.”

Powered by the Jabra PanaCast 50, walking into one of these refreshed spaces with a laptop and simply connecting to the room’s system unlocks fully immersive meetings for those present and joining remotely.

For Warwick Business School, being able to facilitate learning sessions to a remote audience has been a savvy decision, allowing them to use the technology to further improve the shared experience of everybody using this dynamic learning environment.

Find out more about the PanaCast 50

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