UCLA School of Law advances legal education with Pearl and Epiphan Edge

UCLA School of Law, a leader in innovative legal education, leverages video capture technology in its moot courtroom, classrooms, and presentation spaces to educate and inspire students.

To meet their growing needs, UCLA Law partnered with Epiphan Video to deploy Pearl devices and Epiphan Edge, integrated with Panopto as their content management system (CMS), providing a reliable, flexible video capture solution.

The Challenge

UCLA Law required a robust video capture solution to support:

• Multi-camera recording in their moot courtroom for mock trials and competitions.
• Recording and streaming scheduled lectures to Panopto CMS.
• Flexible scheduling and overflow streaming for faculty presentations and high-profile events.

Challenges included:

• Extended operating hours with a small team of technicians.
• Unscheduled disruptions caused by power and network outages.
• Need for flexible scheduling accessible to non-technical users.

As Brian Hatcher, the Instructional Technology Coordinator at UCLA Law notes: “With only three technicians, we required a video capture solution that was reliable and easy to use. Something we can hand off to a student or faculty assistant without having to explain coding or video formats to them.”

The Solution: Pearl and Epiphan Edge

UCLA Law implemented Epiphan Pearl devices and Epiphan Edge cloud service to ensure reliable video capture and centralized remote management, seamlessly integrating with Panopto CMS for streamlined workflows.

Key features:

• Multi-camera capture: Four cameras in the moot courtroom capture every interaction and content source for detailed observation.
• Panopto integration: Simplifies recording, storage, and content access.
• Remote management via Epiphan Edge: Real-time alerts and live monitoring enable proactive troubleshooting and peace of mind.
• Offline recording: Hardware encoding with battery backups ensure uninterrupted recording during power and network outages.
• Intuitive control: Integration with in-room touch panels (AMX, Extron) and an intuitive web interface (Epiphan Edge) for scheduling ensures flexibility.

Hatcher notes: “Having Epiphan Edge has truly been a lifesaver. The ability to monitor every room and review scheduled recordings makes our lives so much easier.”

Implementation

The deployment prioritized reliability, flexibility, and ease of use:

• Courtroom configuration: Pearl devices (Pearl-2 and Pearl Nexus) ensure every audio and video source is captured reliably and continuously.
• Classroom workflows: Integration with Panopto ensures automated lecture capture with no input required from faculty.
• Rapid adjustments: Remote monitoring and intuitive scheduling with the Epiphan Edge web-interface allows quick pivots for last-minute needs.
• Overflow capabilities: Video and audio seamlessly overflows into adjacent rooms via SRT streaming.
• Customizable alerts: Notify technicians of signal loss or technical issues, enabling fast response and system reliability.

Results

For faculty and students:

• Enhanced learning: Reliable lecture capture improves comprehension and retention while freeing faculty to focus on teaching.
• Detailed evaluations: Moot courtroom recordings provide actionable insights into student performances.

“The consistency of the system allows us to be as flexible as possible while delivering exactly what faculty and students need,” Hatcher shares.

For the AV team:

• Operational efficiency: Remote monitoring and system administration via Epiphan Edge simplifies workflows and makes life easier for system administrators.
• Peace of mind: Pearl’s offline recording and schedule retention ensures uninterrupted operations, even when facing unforeseen network or power interruptions.

Overall impact

Seamless integration of Pearl and Epiphan Edge has elevated UCLA Law’s ability to deliver high-quality video capture in a flexible and reliable AV environment. As Hatcher put it: “Confidence in our video capture system is everything.”

Conclusion

UCLA School of Law’s adoption of Pearl and Epiphan Edge has redefined video capture in legal education. By ensuring their video integration is easy to use, flexible, and reliable, it has empowered students and faculty to leverage video more effectively in pursuit of excellence in legal scholarship.

Hatcher reflects: “With Pearl and Epiphan Edge, we’ve built a system we trust to deliver on every level—from our moot courtroom to classroom lectures, the technology just works, and it works beautifully.”