University of Rhode Island standardizes user-friendly automated video spaces

At the University of Rhode Island (URI), enhancing education through technology is a core mission, worthy of prominence. Yet for Katie Babula and her AV team, remaining unseen is the goal: “We try to make everything as easy to use as possible, as seamless and as invisible to both students and faculty, to just let the teaching take center stage.”

However the stealthy approach to AV has become increasingly difficult given her team’s recent successes. Like so many schools, URI became a major player in augmented video spaces in 2020. Since then, the demand for lecture capture, video recording, and streaming has only increased, becoming a permanent fixture and expectation campus-wide.

“For better or worse, if you do good work, everyone wants more from you. We embraced that,” remarks Babula.

In addition to classroom capture and recording, Babula and her team support live events, lecture series and broadcasts from various auditoriums and presentation spaces. It’s all part of the school’s mission to educate not only students but the local community in Kingston and the surrounding region as well.

“We need AV deployments that can do double duty for us reliably. And as a small team, we need the ability to manage at scale and have the most impact with the least amount of lift.”

Challenge: Automated video capture, recording and streaming at scale

In preparation for their 45 room deployment, Babula consulted with groups across campus to gather requirements and success metrics. “The one we heard frequently was ‘automate as much as possible.’ And that drove our design theory to make it the easiest lift for our faculty.”

Key video capture solution requirements:

• Seamless integration with existing AV infrastructure
• User-friendly and reliable for faculty
• Efficient deployment and management by a small in-house team

Ultimately, the success of the project hinged on the faculty’s willingness to adopt the solution en masse. Making video capture, recording and streaming an automated function of their teaching spaces was the only way to ensure that.

“Our faculty have heavy teaching loads. They may have only 15 minutes to change classrooms, with many things competing for their time and attention.” Babula emphasized how instructors shouldn’t be expected to take on additional technology responsibilities: “Automation just relieves them of that.”

Solution: Pearl Nexus with Epiphan Edge

To meet their requirements, URI standardized on Epiphan Pearl Nexus as the cornerstone of their lecture capture solution. Leveraging Pearl’s flexible suite of integration options, they selected Panopto for content management and Q-SYS for control. The system is fully automated, allowing instructors to simply walk into a room and teach.

Pearls are now deployed in over 45 classrooms and auditoriums across campus, providing a reliable, flexible, and scalable video capture environment.

“Our instructors love the ability to stream and record their lectures. With Epiphan and Panopto, that deep integration between the two, it is set-it-and-forget-it for our instructors,” said Jeffrey Levesque, Lead Information Technologist.

Instructors schedule their rooms at the beginning of the semester, and then recordings are captured automatically. Pearl records cameras, content, and audio, then transfers the recordings to Panopto. Integrated with the school’s LMS, recordings are instantly accessible at the instructor’s discretion.

Their new classroom standard leverages industry-leading components to ensure reliability, scalability and ease of use:

• Epiphan Pearl Nexus – video capture, recording, streaming
• Panopto – content management, scheduling, LMS integration
• Q-SYS Core 110f / Q-SYS Core Nano – audio processing
• Q-SYS NV-21-HU – endpoint for USB-C laptops
• Q-SYS TSC-70-G3 – control, Pearl integration module
• Netgear M4250-26G4XF-PoE+ – network
• Catchbox – wireless microphones
• Audio Technica ATND1061 – ceiling microphones
• Q-SYS NC Series – PTZ cameras
• Sony VPL-PHZ60 – projectors

As noted by Babula, their in-house AV strategy leans heavily on the strength of their partners to make AV deployments a reality. “We’ve found such a wealth of help that comes from all our partners. They are always more than willing to give us advice and proofread systems for us.”

Efficient management with Epiphan Edge

With dozens of lecture halls and auditoriums to manage, URI needed a solution to streamline operations and ensure consistent performance. Epiphan Edge provides URI’s AV team with centralized remote management, saving time and increasing operational efficiency. “We can see what Pearls are active, diagnose issues remotely, and even update firmware across all devices from one dashboard,” said Jeffrey. “This allows us to proactively resolve issues without having to visit classrooms, which is a huge advantage for our small team.”

Results: reliable, user-friendly, and scalable

The fully automated solution provides a seamless user experience for instructors, enhancing the learning environment for students. Hundreds of lectures are recorded and streamed weekly and instructors are now requesting the technology in more spaces on campus. With the reliability and efficiency of the Pearl + Panopto integration, URI’s AV team is able to meet that demand with confidence.

“What I really love is how approachable it’s made lecture capture recording to our faculty” remarks Katie. “They do it once and they go ‘This is great! I want to do it for all my lectures because it’s so easy to do.”

For Jeffrey, selecting Pearl early in the design phase was a key to the project’s success. Thanks to Epiphan Edge “The time saving is huge.” noted Jeffrey. “That peace of mind to be able to see everything at a glance, that’s half the battle right there.”

Jeffrey also notes that prioritizing user-friendliness and automation in their AV design standard was paramount.

“It’s paying off for us because our instructors love what we have in our classrooms.”