ICT News, March 2008
- Audio-visual upgrades boost learning and teaching
- Fast wireless for Front Lawn assists Orientation Week
Audio-visual upgrades boost learning and teaching
Audio Visual Services have recently completed an upgrade of the University's learning and teaching facilities, including the refurbishment of 18 lecture theatres and installation of new audio-visual equipment in 55 seminar rooms.
This project was part of ICT's ongoing five-year audio-visual plan, which aims to:
- improve the quality of learning through modern digital media
- provide attractive environments for research and postgraduate seminars
- enhance support speed and effectiveness through up-to-date equipment permitting remote assistance and fault diagnosis.
The upgrade involved:
- introduction of lecture recording capabilities via lapel microphones, so students can access streamed audio through the University's learning management system
- larger wide-screen viewing areas and high-quality data projectors which allow even small web text to be read from the back rows of a lecture theatre
- option of audience feedback via a bookable set of hand-held keypad transmitters
- lecterns with new computers, user-friendly touch panels and visualisers or document cameras
- high-definition surround sound and digital signal paths
- potential for implementation of further capabilities including video conferencing, wireless collaboration, and Voice over IP.
The ICT Audio Visual Services and Project Services team succeeded in meeting an ambitious deadline, taking just ten weeks to provide 73 new digitally enabled teaching spaces which are already enhancing the learning and teaching experience for thousands of students and their lecturers.
Fast wireless for Front Lawn assists Orientation Week
ICT has installed three fast new wireless access points, giving high-speed network connectivity across the Front Lawn. During Orientation Week, about 100 computers, both in booths and mobile, used the wireless link to be on-line in the open air.
The installation was planned and carried out by Mr James Ding, who has worked for ICT and its predecessors, and been involved in University network development, for over a quarter of a century. ICT has been installing wireless networking equipment across the University since 2001: so far about 300 access points have been provided.
James installed three Cisco Aironet 1250 series access points around the Lawn: two are in the main quadrangle building and one in the Fisher Library. The 1250 series are the first enterprise-class access points to support the IEEE802.11n draft 2.0 standard, which offers combined data rates of up to 600 megabits per second, providing high bandwidth for laptops with a corresponding new network card, and improving experience on the older 802.11a/b/g cards as well. Each access point has two radios and six antennas, and together they provide excellent signal strength across the Lawn — an area of about 150 metres by 50 metres.
James says that careful planning and choice of access point locations are very important for such an installation, to ensure that the whole area is covered and to avoid overlap with other channels. It is believed that the University of Sydney is the first Australian university to install this type of wireless access point.