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University of Bath

Reaping the benefits of laser

Laser technology delivers consistent, long lasting performance projecting a bright high quality image viewable even in high ambient light conditions. The University of Bath have installed NEC laser projection across a large part of its general teaching areas; to standardise its quality offering to staff and students and reap the benefits of compelling TCO credentials.

Located in Bath, Somerset, in the South West of England, the University of Bath is an established top ten UK university with a reputation for research and teaching excellence. Serving over 15,500 students, its community is characterised by its culture of high achievement, enterprise and creativity.

The Challenge

Students at Bath are the most likely to recommend the University to their friends, according to the 2016 THE Student Experience Survey. This confirms the excellence of the all-round student experience provided by the university, a level which they work hard to maintain.

The University of Bath operates an annual programme of refurbishment to ensure that their teaching areas provide a modern and stimulating space within which to learn, a key criteria specified by students in the experience survey. This includes the furniture, the technology and the infrastructure (cabling, wiring and lighting) to ensure that these spaces meet the university’s requirements for future years. With a focus on delivering consistent performance, the university chose NEC laser projection to deliver the visual technology within its general teaching areas.

UniversityofBathDetail1The NEC Solution

To ensure the best fit solution, each teaching space was considered individually. Rob Hyde, AV Service Manager at the University of Bath explains:‘We write a specification based on our observations of each room and we model each room for its worse-case scenario, such as full sun in the summer months, meaning each room gets a minimum set of operating conditions to meet. Our suppliers were asked to meet or exceed our specification and they all recommended NEC. We conducted an evaluation of the recommended models and they worked well with what we were trying to achieve.’

For the visual technology, the aim of the refurbishment project was to standardise all teaching rooms to Full HD output and to provide consistent reliability with bright image quality, even in rooms with high ambient lighting. Some rooms are equipped with twin projectors to show two sources side by side.

‘We’re really concerned with long-term reliability and predictability, we want whatever we specify now, to behave exactly as we designed in 5 years’ time. This gives us confidence that the system works well and likewise ensures that the academic staff and students also enjoy the same experience year-on-year. Working on a five year cycle (which mirrors NEC’s 5 year warranty), we try to replace around one-fifth of our stock each year based on need, so that we have a guaranteed quality and display standard that we can work to.’

‘Using laser technology has been a deliberate choice of ours. We chose to use it because it provides a consistent platform, one which allows us to change the way we consider the Total Cost of Ownership in our teaching process. Its long lasting consistent performance means we can more effectively plan for our future requirements.’

Further purchasing criteria met by the NEC models include the HDMI input for digital transmission of High Definition content plus low operating noise.‘Where we have to use them in a situation, they need to be quiet enough to be mounted in the teaching rooms and not distract the staff or students,’ says Rob.

UniversityofBathDetail2The Result

The general teaching area rooms are used for many hours daily, they include lecture theatres, small teaching rooms and PC suites, all different shapes and brightness conditions. NEC laser projection solutions were able to meet all these demands and provide a perfect visual solution.

‘Using NEC laser projection in these rebuilt spaces ensures we can deliver a consistent quality standard. Following our evaluation, NEC proved they met our exacting standard.’ confirmed Rob.

As the University of Bath continue to be the most highly ranked university in the South West region, its continuous investment into providing state of the art teaching spaces will ensure that it maintains this position for many years to come.