Smile you're on camera
To support our regional growth, the University’s video conferencing facilities have received a significant boost with the injection of approximately $2 million over the past year to enhance capabilities. The technology also includes upgrades to audio visual equipment in several key lecture theatres. Permanent video conferencing facilities have been installed in two 240 seat lecture theatres, one on the Central Coast and another in the General Purpose Building on the Callaghan campus, giving academics the capability to video conference lectures to you in various venues.
Both rooms, and the 420-seat lecture theatre in Computing and Information Sciences at Newcastle campus, have been fitted with new triple projection systems. These allow lecturers to run either a single projector for a straight forward presentation or two simultaneously if they want to use more than one delivery mode – for instance, a PowerPoint and a video conference link.
New step pads behind the lecterns control the camera angles, zooming to a tight shot when the lecturer is behind the lectern then reverting to a wide screen view once he or she steps away.
Video conferencing facilities across various University locations have been stepped up from standard to high definition clarity and new LCD Monitors installed at many of the end points. This will significantly improve the video reception between the campuses and Tamworth and the new Manning Education Centre at Taree.
EchoSystem has also been introduced to record lectures and upload them to Blackboard. EchoSystem was developed around the function of recording live events (specifically lectures) across an entire campus, and making streaming/download/audio and video podcast versions of these recordings available on-demand soon after the lecture.
