Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

Advance Sound Company Outfits Molloy College Nursing School Pt 2

Show 164, Part 2

SVC Podcast – Show Notes – Show 164-2

In this edition of the SVC Podcast, SVC Contributing Editor Bennett Liles finishes his conversation with Thomas DePace of Long Island’s Advance Sound Company. Thomas provides details on the AV installation in the new classrooms, labs, telepresence center and multi-use spaces at the Molloy College Barbara H. Hagan Center for Nursing. In Part 2 he discusses the multi-function spaces that were fitted out with new AV systems.

 For Part 1

Links of interest:

Download Podcast Here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/nb-svc/public/public/164-2_Molloy_Nursing_DePac…

This is the SVC Podcast from Sound & Video Contractor Magazine with Thomas DePace of Advance Sound Company. Show notes and equipment links for the podcast are on the web site of Sound & Video Contractor Magazine at svconline.com.

At Molloy College on Long Island the Barbara H. Hagan Center for Nursing got a new building with classrooms and labs. They needed the best AV system they could get for the new facility. Thomas DePace from Advance Sound Company is back with us to finish the story on how it all got installed and set up. That’s coming up next on the SVC Podcast.

Thomas, thanks for being back for Part 2 on the SVC Podcast from Advance Sound Company. Molloy College nursing program, a brand new facility and they wanted top-notch AV systems in it. We talked last week about their big tiered classrooms and what you did in there. There are also some multi-function spaces. What’s in those?

There are a couple of multi-function classrooms that the college uses not only for the nursing program, but for other educational aspects as well. We’ve actually seen them bring in the board meetings into some of their multi-function spaces and we’ve paired that with a Beyerdynamic Quinta Board of Ed system. And so as we continued to get through the year they keep evolving what they could use the space for. They have some great tables for catering so they use them as not only a classroom space but a meeting space and an entertaining space on the campus. [Timestamp: 1:38]

And what do you have for mics in those rooms or do you have mics in those rooms?

Yeah. They have Clockaudio ceiling mics scattered throughout the room as well as cameras for the Lecture Capture. They’re usually in the multipurpose spaces, dual screen, and we paired that with some wireless mics and some Board of Ed wireless conference systems as well. [Timestamp: 1:59]

Okay, nursing labs, a telepresence room, simulation rooms. Did you install AV systems in all of these spaces?

Yeah. Being that it was ground up they had us going into every room. There are actually board telepresence rooms and video conferencing rooms in the building. The dean actually has a video conferencing in her own personal conference space. But they use those for the doctoral program. They’re able to meet with and collaborate with their doctoral and nursing partners and professional partners throughout the building as well as use those in tandem with the simulation labs of the building. And they’re able to go into a debrief session. They have Sharp Aquos interactive touch monitors in some of them where they’re able to take an x-ray or drawing or some sort of report and again increase the collaborative function of the space. [Timestamp: 2:52]

And you want to be cutting-edge with this but there’s sometimes a little bit of debate on how wireless the systems need to be. I’m sure there are still some cabled connections so how far did they go with wireless?

There’s wired and wireless connections. Being that we’re built off the Crestron system there’s some DMTX wall plates as well as table boxes with some show-me buttons in the conference room tables. But we did pair that with Apple TV’s and Crestron air media devices in order to make it as hybrid a system as possible for both wireless and wired systems. [Timestamp: 3:26]

And sooner or later you have to give them some training and turn them loose on it so how did the training on these systems go? How did that work for the students and faculty?

In terms of the training we really took the school IT support staff and they do have an educational technology staff as well. And while we were doing the final walk-throughs and punch list items on the system we were working in tandem with them to train them. We actually wanted them to be there as part of the punch list process so that they saw some of the pitfalls and troubles that we had and how we were able to work through them. So they became champions of the system and they were the ones that worked to train the college staff. And part of the great thing about using Lecture Capture is we recorded the sessions that we did with them and they used that in a bank of educational sessions with the professors. On top of that the first week of classes rolled around, we set up a table in the conference room and gave away cookies and coffee where we were able to answer questions not only from the faculty and staff but from the students who were intrigued by what they had seen in the space. And there we gave away some notebooks, we gave away direct contact information for us in order to make sure that they bought into the system as well as 16-gigabit flash drives that they could use for the Lecture Capture. [Timestamp: 4:39]

It’s impressive what they can record in these spaces but what can they playback from? Any device they decide to bring in?

Yeah. The system comes built-in with a Denon Blu-ray player. It’s got an owner-furnished classroom computer and both of those things are actually going through an Extron Annotator on a screen. But then there’s also the wireless connections as well as wired connections on the lectern where professors can bring their own laptops or notebooks or bring your own device scenarios. [Timestamp: 5:09]

Was there an aspect to this project that was especially challenging or just very tough to get done?

I would say that the most challenging thing would be really attaining the needs of the educational program. You know, like I said last week the program is one of the top-rated in the country and they were truly underserved in the space that they had so they had these lofty dreams as to what they expected. And we were able to pair their dreams into what were necessities and what they would like to see and we were able to create a roadmap for their future technology needs which started with this project. And we’re going to continue to evaluate and update as technology changes so rapidly. [Timestamp: 5:52]

As the technology changes, some of the users will change right along with it and at the same time some will just go a little retro. A very wide range of users. You got in there with a very hard deadline to finish in time for spring semester classes so how long did this whole thing take from the beginning?

It was probably about a 16-month process from the initial conversation and design with the college where we were brought in through the GCN electrical contractor. From there we were able to kind of pair the needs of the college and you know while they were already entrenched in the construction over the summer we were able to come in and start our work. So although it’s an 18-month process it was probably a seven or eight-month installation timeline that definitely had a definitive date of the spring semester. [Timestamp: 6:38]

And of course there are some sleepless nights getting all of the little deadlines met along the way. Sounds like it was fun working on it though. Now that you’ve got this one done what’s up next for Advance Sound Company that’s coming down the line?

Well, it’s always important to maintain the relationships with our customers so obviously continuing to work with Molloy College. But right now we’re actually currently finishing the integration of the new Long Island Expressway Welcome Center here on Long Island. It’s really a beautiful space that celebrates the best of Long Island. It’s got a new Taste of New York store that’s an initiative of Governor Cuomo and we’re also pretty well into the installation of recording studio spaces at the newly-constructed facility for the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College. So there’s a lot of exciting things going on. [Timestamp: 7:22]

That’s probably a good change of pace after being immersed in the classroom world for a while. It was good to hear everything went well. Thomas DePace with Advance Sound Company and the Molloy College nursing program. A new building and all new AV systems throughout the place. Thanks for telling us how you got it all done.

Thank you for having me.

Thanks to Thomas DePace from Advance Sound Company for joining us on the podcast. Show notes and equipment links are on the website of Sound & Video Contractor Magazine at svconline.com. Be back with us right here next week for the SVC Podcast.

Featured Articles

Close