Polar supplies beyerdynamic and Biamp at NTU
- Details
One of the UK's leading new universities, since 2004, NTU has invested more than £350m across its three campuses, developing world class teaching and learning facilities. A stated goal of the university is that its teaching estate and the technical support behind it, should be first class. NTU's investment in state-of-the-art AV systems reflects this commitment and Polar Integrated Solutions has co-operated with the university's AV Team Leader, Stuart Loughran, on a number of projects designed to meet the highest standards.
A feature of modern educational practice is 'lecture capture', an umbrella term to describe any technology that allows educational practitioners to record what happens in their classrooms and make it digitally available to their students. The advantages of this are clear. Students are able to catch up if classes are missed, content may be closely reviewed and also may be retained for course development.
Central and absolutely crucial to the process of lecture capture is recorded audio. It is clear that whilst any problems with the visual aspect of lecture capture might compromise the results, poor audio quality would render the whole exercise futile. Stuart Loughran consulted with Polar as to the best way to achieve optimum recording without inhibiting lecture delivery. Polar recommended a solution based on beyerdynamic's patented Revoluto microphone array technology used in conjunction with Biamp Tesire Forte DSP.
Integrators Nottingham AV were engaged to install the systems in six of the university's lecture theatres. Each comprised three beyerdynamic RM30 vertical microphone arrays suspended from the ceiling and two MPR 210 horizontal microphone arrays on lecterns. As the speaker leaves the capture area of the MPR 210 and walks around the stage, the 3 x RM30s ensure no loss of coverage, so he or she is always in the field of pickup.
For DSP, a Biamp TesiraFORTE AI digital audio server was placed in each theatre interfacing directly with a PC via its USB port. Each PC uses Panopto software specifically designed for lecture capture to record the audio and make it available to students. The TesiraFORTE AI has up to eight channels of configurable USB audio and also provides extensive audio processing, including signal routing and mixing, equalisation, filtering, dynamics and delay, as well as control, monitoring and diagnostic tools. It is an ideal solution for applications like the NTU setting, where high quality audio is essential.
Stuart Leader, director at Polar Integrated Solutions commented: "This was a straightforward installation, the beauty of which lies in the combination of two exceptionally well-conceived technologies to achieve fantastic results. It is vital in educational applications such as this, that nothing is missed and every word can be heard without effort. The beyerdynamic array microphones ensure that the first part of that equation is achieved without compromising the comfort of the presenter and the Biamp DSP delivers that audio perfectly for recording.
Stuart Loughran, Audio Visual and Media Services Team Leader added: "For speakers who like to roam away from the lectern and in front of the screen, the combination of beyerdynamic Revoluto MPR 210 and RM 30 microphones creates a complete sound stage with great pickup. The Biamp Tesira Forte DSP binds everything together to create a high quality audio experience, eliminating the ambient noise created by air handling, projection and general room noise, to leave students with a clear recording.
“The DSP outputs directly into the PC resulting in a much cleaner recording than if the PC itself processed the audio. Overall we are very pleased with the quality and success of both the microphone and DSP solution in what was potentially a very tricky project - for our larger venues it will definitely be the way forward."
(Jim Evans)
