The University of West Florida’s Innovation Institute loves Christie® Brio and is using it in more ways than anticipated. Located in Pensacola, Fla., the Institute provides open space for teams in collaborative environments to nurture ideas for solving challenges in education, government, industry, science and the arts using advanced technology.
To accomplish its goals, the Institute needed to connect team members remotely without concerns about connectivity, cables, wires, or losing dongles. With valuable insight provided by Atlanta-based Technical Innovation, the Institute compared multimedia collaboration solutions and, according to Susan Caine, Project Development, Technical Innovation, a non-traditional, easy-to-use wireless solution was needed.
“People from all walks of life use the facility and the Institute wanted them to walk in and work with a tablet, smartphone or their computer and start communicating without having to think about the technology or having to worry about dongles,” said Caine. “It had to be simple and easy to use that is why we selected Christie Brio. Also, the way the room is set up may be different in six months so the traditional AV system where you uninstall one system and install a new one with all the cables and wires wasn’t the best solution. That is another reason we selected the Christie Brio: we could put in a video wall or different display without worrying about redesigning or rerunning cables.”
Dr. Dave Dawson, research scientist at the Innovation Institute, agreed. “We needed team members to come in with whatever device they’re comfortable using and connect and collaborate with that device, without having to wade through a maze of cables or having to rely on tech support to help them. Christie Brio provided us with the flexibility and ease of interaction that was critical for us. To use Christie Brio is to love it.”
<strong>Christie Brio surpasses customer expectations</strong>
“Once we had the system integrated into our network and were able to use it, we were wildly pleased with the performance. We’ve been able to improve the efficiency and efficacy of what we do – we’re able to compare information easily and make better decisions,” added Dawson. “Brio has done everything that we’ve asked it to do. In fact, we have been able to do some things we hadn’t anticipated being able to do because of the capabilities of Brio. ” Those benefits include remotely switching among multiple sources of content and managing that content from any mobile device. Content can also be given a dominant position on the display with participants – no matter where they are located – able to control the audio.
“It’s the user experience that is the key here. As we listened to Dr. Dawson and his team and learned what they needed, we realized Christie Brio was the right choice. Brio provides that user experience and think tank environment for the Innovation Institute. It’s easy to use, flexible, and met the Institute’s criteria of a self-contained solution,” added Lisa Matthews, director of marketing, Technical Innovation.
“The Innovation Institute is like a think tank and that is what they are supposed to do: go in, come up with ideas and not worry about what button to push and wonder if it will work,” said Caine. “With Brio, they just walked in and the system worked and they get right to work. The Institute is growing so fast and it’s working out so well for them.”
Christie Brio allows users to virtually meet, share information and collaborate effortlessly, overcome geographical distances, and eliminates the challenge of single and multi-site workplace meetings. Easy to install and use, Christie Brio uses wired or wireless connections to automatically coordinate and display up to five simultaneous video and audio presentations on one or two meeting room screens.
