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University of Chichester

Competitive advantage through technology

Providing a range of flexible learning spaces allows teaching staff to match the needs of students whilst supporting their own unique teaching styles. A new academic building at the University of Chichester benefits from a range of NEC large format displays and laser projection.
Based in West Sussex, on the south coast of England, the University of Chichester prides itself on its student-centred education within a supportive community of learning.

The Challenge

A large-scale investment plan is taking place to improve the student, staff and local community experience by providing new and improved facilities. The brand new Academic Building, which opened in January 2017, has delivered 21 new learning and conferencing spaces with a capacity of over 500 at any one time. Building on the design principles and success of this venture, the University is also delivering a further entirely new 6000m² Tech-Park building to house its new science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) undergraduate and postgraduate students from September 2018.

Housing creative and flexible learning spaces, the university worked with integrator Reflex to ensure the new build delivered versatile high performance AV functionality which supported participation and inclusivity for all students.

UniOfChichesterDetail1The NEC Solution

Reflex worked with Sarah Hearst and Ross Copping from the university’s AV Projects team to design cost effective ways to meet their requirements whilst delivering 22 high performance learning spaces. These range in size from large (150 capacity), medium (25-60), seminar (10-20) to small group meeting and tutorial rooms. The solutions installed included interactive classrooms, audio intrusive solutions and recording and streaming capabilities, all controllable by the user.

NEC E Series large format displays were installed throughout, with sizes ranging from 42” through to 90” according to the size of the room. In each of the two largest lecture halls, an NEC 8,000 ANSI lumen laser projector (PX803UL) projects high bright teaching material directly onto the matte painted wall surface.

“The NEC laser projector delivers an excellent quality image which is very important to us. It provides long lasting brightness which even in the largest lecture spaces, where we maintain good ambient lighting, the content is still crisp and clear on the wall,” says Sarah Hearst, AV Projects Manager.
“It is so much more convenient not having to change lamps or filters in the projector, and not having a projection screen means there is no risk of damage which has been a problem previously. Also, if the image ratio changes, we don’t need to make any adjustments to make the screen fit.”
The largest of the two lecture spaces also benefits from two repeater screens using the 50” E505 displays, which are ceiling mounted on poles enabling them to swivel.

The larger teaching and seminar rooms feature huge 90” displays, mounted on the wall using Peerless flat wall mounts. The enormity of the screen and high detail content ensures the teaching material is easily readable by all, since the room caters for up to 60 students.

The AV Projects team was keen to follow a minimalist approach in the new building, keeping it fresh and modern with no clutter whilst delivering a variety of flexible learning spaces to suit different learning needs and teaching styles. “We also have two 80” screens which are mounted on Dalen (TOP-TEC) mobile trolley units which gives us excellent versatility. These are all very neat solutions, slim-line with no cables visible,” says Hearst.

One of the more innovative aspects of the project is the ability to screen-cast from mobile devices and show any networked data or external web pages on the tablets and NEC displays. Using this solution, the University of Chichester is leading the way in digital learning.

UniOfChichesterDetail2The Results

Rod Matthews, Head of IT at the university, comments: “Working with the expert AV designers at Reflex and sharing knowledge about how to achieve teaching and learning excellence has resulted in a solution that supports our teaching excellence.”

Hearst comments: “We have used NEC in the past and have always been impressed by the quality of its products. The excellent support we receive from the NEC sales team and their partnership with Reflex is of great benefit to us, resulting in a project that I am very proud to have been a part of.”