Background
Lutterworth College is a Secondary and Sixth Form Church of England School in Leicestershire, UK. With 200 teachers, administrators, and staff, the school serves approximately 1,600 students aged 11 to 19 across several buildings on its campus.
Most of the school’s classrooms had hardwired docking stations and projectors, but the construction of a new building offered the opportunity to upgrade their AV technology. Adam Robinson, IT Technician at Lutterworth College, led a project investing in new panels to replace the ageing projectors, simultaneously trialing several technology solutions, including Vivi, to implement in the new building before beginning the roll out to the rest of the school site.
Challenge
The school wanted to tackle two key challenges posed by the docking station set-up, which affected the teachers and supporting IT staff.
- Improve teacher mobility. Restricted by the cables connecting the docking stations to the projectors for screen sharing, teachers were stuck in one location, making classroom mobility difficult. The docking station setup limited engagement and proximity teaching options.
- Reduce complexity with an easy-to-use solution. The docking stations presented too many settings to configure things such as the image and the sound, confusing teachers and creating more support calls for the IT team.
Lutterworth College also needed a screen sharing solution to support its existing projector technology and make a seamless transition to its new technology investment in Avocor display panels.
Solution
Adam first encountered Vivi at an education technology conference hosted by the Association of Network Managers in Education (ANME). “We actually won a Vivi box and that’s really where it started. We wanted to try it and give it a go. We like technology that proves itself to us when we get it in our hands. We decided to go ahead with Vivi on our panels to allow teachers to be more mobile around the classroom and make use of being mobile in the teaching space.”
After a successful trial of Vivi, Lutterworth College connected Vivi to all of the new Avocor AVS 7500 panels and some legacy projectors in other classrooms, bringing the initial installation to 30 screens. Vivi was added to another 11 displays the following Spring based on the success of the initial rollout. Another 10 Vivi units will be deployed over the summer in preparation for the upcoming academic year to support the English Department classrooms.
Outcome
The response to adding Vivi to the new panels has been tremendous, thanks to the interactivity, the display size, and the clearer display results that come with it. “Many of our projectors are older installations, so they are not compatible with the 16:9 screens. The new panels are a massive upgrade for the teachers and all the interactivity that comes with it through Vivi.” As the budget allows, the school plans to replace all of its ageing classroom projectors with panels plus Vivi.
Wireless technology creates mobility
The school freed the teachers from being stuck at the front of the classroom with the Vivi solution. “The main challenge we faced was that teachers weren’t necessarily in the right place in the room. By having the wireless Vivi boxes, there are fewer restrictions on moving because they can teach from anywhere, they don’t have to be physically tethered to the wall.”
Ease of use = No complaints!
“Generally speaking, Vivi removes a lot of problems for the teachers because they don’t need to mess around with any settings. More ease of use from their side, they don’t need to worry about all the dozens of dials on the amplifier, the sound just works.” Without these complications, the IT team saves the time it used to spend visiting (and revisiting) classrooms to sort out the docking station settings.
“Our team keeps alluding to the fact that no feedback from the teachers must be good news, because they moan if it’s not good, so the fact that they’re not moaning must mean it’s good!”
Easy on the budget & IT support
The long VGA to HDMI cables running through the classroom were causing signal problems with legacy projectors. Thanks to lower upfront costs, Adam and his team installed Vivi to work with their existing projectors. Having Vivi mounted closer to the projector and the screen removed the signal problems. “The fact that it is not a massive upfront cost is a benefit for us.” The school rests assured knowing that their current Vivi boxes will be “ready to go” as they map out the budget to replace the projectors with panels over time.
Uniformity and compatibility
From an IT and a user perspective, Adam is most pleased with the uniformity enabled by the Vivi solution, creating a consistent experience for teachers whether they use Vivi with a projector or a panel. “We have projectors, and we have panels, and to the user, the interface and everything is the same as long as you’re in a Vivi location. That consistency is a massive benefit.”
