Our Christmas list

Over the Christmas vacation the AV team have been busy making several changes to the equipment in teaching rooms.

Windows 10

Following the upgrade of a few rooms as a trial earlier in the year, all teaching rooms have now been upgraded to Windows 10. This will resolve a conflict between the In-Class Polling Tool (Turning Point Responseware), and PowerPoint when using Replay (the Lecture Capture system).

All software is available as before, but there are a few differences to be aware of:

Logging on

When you approach the computer it will show this screen:



Click the mouse, or press any key to get to the username and password screen:



Once you’ve entered your username and password you’ll be taken to the desktop:



Your first login may take slightly longer on a first log in as a new profile is generated. Any desktop icons will still be present, but shared drives may need to be remapped.

Web browser

The default browser is now Chrome. Although its profile doesn't roam between PCs you can sign into Chrome to sync your settings.

HDCP, bit depth and display power saving

We’ve made three changes to the video switchers that are present in about half of our rooms:

1. We’ve disabled HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection) on the Laptop HDMI input cable, as it was causing problems with Replay (The Lecture Capture system). This means that content presented from Mac laptops should now record reliably, but connecting a copy protected source (ie a Blu-ray player) to the laptop input will fail. We have a workaround that we can implement for this if playback from a Blu-ray is required (please email us on avcentre@york.ac.uk if you'd like us to arrange this).
2. We’ve changed a setting that relates to how the image from the PC is recognised. This should stop the frequent grey screens that have been a problem since an update was rolled out over summer.
3. We’ve enabled a power saving setting, so that two minutes after all input signals are removed, the monitor will turn off. Waking the PC up again, or connecting a laptop will bring the monitor back on.

Replay: more rooms and new guidance

We’re also in the process of equipping D/L/047, D/L/116, D/N/104, C/A/107, C/A/130, C/A/140, K/111, PS/B/202, V/C/123 with the equipment required to use the Replay service, in addition to the rooms that will get Replay as part of the Christmas refurbishments. The software that runs the recording indicator lights has been updated to a more reliable version, and there's a new reminder label by each of the lights explaining what it means.

As ever, please get in touch on learning-spaces@york.ac.uk if you have any comments or questions.

Philip Stewart

Audio-Visual Manager

Piazza Episode 3 - The Empire Lights Back

The new Piazza Building will include a large lecture theatre with about 350 seats, although we’ll be discussing exactly which seats to use in the new year (as ever, suggestions welcome via learning-spaces@york.ac.uk). The tablet chairs as shown below are only indicative - there will be a writing bench similar to our other high quality theatres.

At this month’s Working Group, we discussed power provision (a socket per every three or four seats, similar to Spring Lane) and technology provision.

The height adjustable lectern that we introduced in Spring Lane has been well received, so will be repeated. However, we’ll be moving it away from the seats a little, so that it sits about halfway between them and the projection screens. We’ll also be shrinking the lectern from the three metres wide in Spring Lane to closer to two metres in Piazza to help make sure that there’ll still be plenty of free space at the front of the theatre.

We’ll be pairing the lectern with another video flipchart table which, like in Spring Lane, will allow the use of the projection screens (two, about the same size as Spring Lane) instead of traditional whiteboards.  Working seamlessly with lecture capture, as well as providing more virtual writing space than we’d have been able to fit had we used traditional column boards, the video flipchat has received overwhelmingly positive feedback so far - though we will be looking at making it a little more presentable in its next incarnation!

As well as taking the best bits of our recent builds and refurbishments, we’re always looking for ways to improve our spaces. One of the things we’re looking at for the Piazza Building is the lecture theatre lighting. As well as the standard strip lights that we find in lecture theatre across campus, we’d like to include some more focused lighting towards the front of the theatre. This will help to create a ‘performance space’ at the front of the theatre, as well as making the projections look better and simultaneously making the speaker is easier to see.

Speaking of performance spaces, next time will be a look at a potential societies space within the Piazza Building.

Eve

Piazza Episode 2 - Attack of the Clones

The majority of space in the Piazza Building is made up of seminar rooms - over 30 in total - which will seat about 20 people in a horseshoe setup similar to that used in the Spring Lane Building. The success of the Spring Lane Building provides a great blueprint for the planning for the Piazza Building.

Inspiration from the Spring Lane Building

The continuing use of ‘desk style’ teaching positions as part of the horseshoe setup has been popular, so will be continued. The ‘windows’ to the interior of the building have also been well received - students being able to spot empty rooms and make use of them has been mentioned repeatedly in feedback, and the Spring Lane Building’s heavy usage (already among the heaviest on campus!) owes significantly to them so they’ll be repeated and enlarged in the new building.

One of the lessons learned from the Spring Lane Building has been that power provision for laptops is important in seminar rooms, as students might have a couple of 2-3 hour seminars in a day, with no chance to recharge laptops in between. Originally, the Piazza seminar rooms had been designed with ample plug sockets - in some cases, enough for one per person. However, having considered concerns relating to trailing cables, Helen and I have been tasked with investigating furniture with integrated power, which will allow a socket at every seat. Should it be successful, it will be something that we can look at retrofitting elsewhere in our learning estate.

Turning to the technology, our recommendation that we explore wireless presentation receivers was well received. Hopefully a subject of their own article in the new year, inclusion of these in each room would free the lecturer to deliver from anywhere in the room as well as facilitating the use of touchscreen laptops or tablets to enable a more interactive style of teaching. We’ll also be looking to include a digital OHP in every room, as well as Replay functionality (watch this space for articles on those subjects too!) throughout.

Next, a look at the 350-seat lecture theatre.

Eve

SLB Experimental Spaces

As well as providing a lecture theatre and 23 high quality collaborative seminar rooms, the Spring Lane Building has three more learning spaces above the lecture theatre. Each has a different, innovative, furniture layout and soon one with a new technology mix to match.

SLB/211

SLB/211, which opened for bookings this week has a mixture of bench seating and movable seats. The island tables make this room ideal for sessions involving a lot of impromptu group work, reconvening back to a whole group discussion.

SLB/210

SLB/210 is our agile lab, with everyone able to face the presentation zone with having a writing surface, also supporting use as a collaborative layout with additional chairs at the tables – as well as a centre table at the front with additional furniture to break out. 

SLB/209

SLB/209, due to open early spring, will dispense with projection entirely and instead feature five screens mounted around the room – each for a group of six to use a dedicated PC, a laptop or view slides from the teaching position. I know our friends over in the E-Learning team are looking forward to this one!

And, when the class is over, there’s a great mix of informal learning spaces directly outside the spaces to continue discussions.

Eve
Learning Spaces Installations & Project Manager

Watch this space: introducing occupancy sensors

Last year, a look at our AV systems revealed that they’re frequently turned on long after the last lecture or seminar of the day has finished. I’m sure we’ve all walked past a window on an evening, only to see a room lit blue.

With the teaching day often finishing at 6pm, but our projectors only being able to switch themselves off at midnight (allowing for twilight sessions), that could be up to six hours of electricity and lamp life wasted! We estimate that about a third of the time that the projectors are turned on, they could be turned off.

Starting with this summer’s buildings – Spring Lane and the new Biology T Block – and then each time we update a room, we’ll add sensors to the AV kit that tell it whether there’s someone there to use it. Once the room’s empty, and after a bit of a wait just in case, it’ll turn itself off. We get to save the planet and rather than buying all of those lamps, spend the money on things that you want instead.

This is a case of a good Big Brother watching over our learning spaces.

Eve
Learning Spaces Installations & Project Manager