Commercial Integrator July 2021 - 26

2021 INTEGRATION AWARDS Higher Education
MCCANN
SYSTEMS:
THE FORUM AT
UC BERKELEY
McCann Systems brings immersive experience to the
University of California-Berkeley campus and it's catching
on with students and staff. By D. Craig MacCormack
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Executive
Education at the Haas School installed
several forum classrooms featuring the Proscenium
solution from McCann Systems.
Familiar instructor and student connections
have been reestablished using
McCann Systems' Proscenium connected
studio environment in four areas at the
Haas School at UC Berkeley, and the higher
education institution is experiencing
stellar engagement results.
McCann Systems worked with Julie
Shackleton, VP of digital initiatives for
Berkeley Executive Education to help the
school to design the system and have it up
and running by the fall semester.
Stationing staff members safely near
campus and complying with local guidelines,
McCann Systems had the system
built and was testing by July. These virtual
classrooms can host completely virtually or
in a hybrid classroom environment for up to
84 off-campus participants.
The project was brought about from the
success experienced with Harvard Business
School's HBX and HBX 2.0 project, built by
McCann Systems.
Joseph Fusaro, VP and senior sales executive
with McCann Systems, helped bring
Proscenium as a solution to UC Berkeley
Executive Education.
" When Julie called looking for an online
collaboration solution, the real challenge
was replicating the in-room experience for
both faculty and students, " said Fusaro.
" Placing the professor back into the classroom
and in front of the students allows
that instructor to be the focus of the room
while still maintaining an equitable, in-room
experience for remote students. "
The Proscenium systems themselves are
comprised of hardware and software solutions
that can accommodate large sessions
of students. Two of the larger Proscenium
installations allow 84 students to interact
with each other- and the instructor- successfully
again.
26
Commercial Integrator JULY 2021
The other rooms are purpose-built for the
existing architecture of Chou Hall and the
class size, fewer screens for hosting 48 and
60 students.
It's very much an immersive, intimate
experience for both the faculty and the participants.
There are perspective cameras,
which allow for eye-to-eye contact. There
are several different views that you can
choose to look at the room from.
Everybody likes to look at the room view,
which has the wall of participants. It's got
nothing to do with paying attention in class,
but everyone likes to see everybody else
and see who's sitting beside them in the
room. There's a room view and a teacher
view. You can decide, " I want to see the
slides and maximize those. "
A pair of 55-inch Sharp and NEC displays
can show students two-up for an equitable
head size experience, or can be matrixed
in a variety of ways. Perspective audio
from Extron soundbars mounted directly
below the featured active speaker, make a
conversation with social cues possible from
anywhere in the world.
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Commercial Integrator July 2021

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