Commercial Integrator May 2022 - 34

MARKETS: HIGHER EDUCATION
How Integrators Can Meet
Today's Classroom Needs
With elevated expectations, integrators must deliver an experience that is
visual, larger and interactive. By Alyssa Borelli
VIDEOCONFERENCING USAGE has accelerated
in today's learning environments, and
it shows no sign of stopping. J.C. Laucirica,
president of integrator Innovate-AV, agrees
that there's no going back to the way things
were pre-COVID-19. The change is permanent.
Now, higher-education clients are
looking for more digital-forward classrooms
with immersive solutions that work seamlessly
with all video-collaboration applications to
provide an experience where both in-person
students and remote students can see, hear
and participate in. " There's a new expectation
that everybody is on video participating, "
Dana Corey, senior vice president and
general manager of global sales at Avocor,
says. " At least those who are delivering the
message must be on video. "
" [With] collaboration and visualization,
we retain more...we experience more, "
Corey continues. " We are more engaged in
those types of environments. " With hybrid
learning, there's a pressing need to deliver
a larger and interactive visual experience.
Those elements, Corey adds, are foundational
to retention.
Understanding Clients' Needs
The first and most important step in a
higher-ed project is understanding the client's
needs. Corey relates a series of questions,
saying, " What's the need for those
[who are] remote? What's the need for those
in the room? What are their objectives? " Integrators
must consider what educators and
students, respectively, seek - that is, what
" value " looks like to them. Only then, Corey
says, can integrators deliver on that.
One of the greatest challenges is that
every room is not created equal. Each
room represents a unique environment
with its own size, spacing and component
materials. A room could have glass walls
versus hard walls or no walls at all. It could
have poor or good lighting conditions. It
might also present the spatial problems.
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Commercial Integrator MAY 2022
Integrators must have a strong understanding of both the hardware and the
software that, when paired together, work to make education spaces function well.
Thus, integrators need to look for tools that
are flexible in their deployment options.
These days, integrators must have a
strong understanding of both the hardware
and the software that make education spaces
function. And then, on top of that, they
must boast a strong knowledge of cloudbased
architecture. On the hardware side,
PTZ cameras with tracking technologies
to follow a speaker around have become
popular, as have ceiling and beamforming
microphones. And, if you ask Innovate-AV's
Laucirica, the digital signage solutions category
is ripe for exponential growth.
Digital Signage Opportunities
Jason Young, national sales manager for
B2B sales at Sony, attests to notable growth
in the company's digital signage displays
and display-management software. He also
notes a larger number of higher-education
clients asking for a more centralized digital
signage infrastructure. Young recalls a client
who indicated that he was aware of eight
or nine different digital signage solutions
across his campus, but he couldn't pinpoint
the varying specifics of each. " It's usually
hit or miss, " Young says, adding that some
departments execute these implementations
better than others do. " And, " he elaborates,
" a lot of times, it's so decentralized
that you've got different groups doing their
own thing. "
Avocor's Corey says, whatever the
solutions, integrators must keep agility at
the forefront of their minds. " Don't develop
a solution that has no ability to adapt, " he
warns. " Don't put in hardware that can't
be moldable to something else. Don't put
any architecture together, ideally, that can't
be amenable to other platforms or more
needs. " He adds that integrators should
utilize knowledge from one highereducation
campus to help open the door
to help other higher-ed institutions. " They
could bring [those solutions] forward to
other campuses, " he explains, " because
the challenges are similar - almost nearly
identical at times. "
Corey continues, " Administrators talk to
each other. They want to tout how good
they are and show the world, because
that's how they [get] students and teachers
to come onboard. " Thus, he concludes,
" If you get one or two [clients] and can get
them to talk about it, which they will want
to, then other schools will come along.
All that work could be worth a lot more
than just the one or two campuses you're
working on. "
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Commercial Integrator May 2022

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