“The RVC has worked with Insight for some years and we were very happy to have them as our chosen supplier when upgrading and expanding our main lecture theatre. They offered a design and build service taking in all the University needs and requirements from the space. With a distributed video signal to both projection and display screens, installing a Video Conference application, a lecture capture application and a quality distributed audio solution, Insight delivered on all counts with a neat and professional look and feel to the project. Our student populous are very happy with the facility provided.”
The Client
The Royal Veterinary College has two campuses – one in Hertfordshire and one in central London.
Over the summer of 2019 and into the Autumn term, Insight delivered 7 different projects in different areas of the University, and each project had their own peculiar requirements in terms of site conditions, liaising with other contractors, working direct with the University in terms of access both through the summer recess and the autumn term, working around the access issues and generally delivering the project on time – managing all these factors.
The Brief
The projects covered the main lecture theatre (Insight had delivered this the year before) with modifications, room upgrades with new lecterns that needed integrating with existing equipment, laboratory refurbishments with multi-screen displays and digital signage in both the college and the main hospital block.
Insight were commissioned to undertake multiple works on two separate campuses at RVC.
Some works were undertaken under or with a main contractor – as other faculties were being upgraded as well as the AV, and some works were direct with the University, so all these areas had to be managed.
The Solution
Part of the delivery was replacing lecterns with built-in racks – so that the equipment could be mounted properly, wired and commissioned and integrated with the in-room equipment.
Undertaking Prince 2 principles we created a delivery plan, looking to build all lecterns off-site – minimising the time on site as the delivery would be within term time. It was clear that access to the lecture rooms was going to be difficult in term time, so we undertook a number of weekend days in order to roll out the change of equipment.
Access to the site had to be agreed upon with security, site inductions completed in advance, all equipment ready for delivery following the lectern build, and a plan of attack as to what needed to be achieved so that the University had working solutions the following Monday.
With the areas Insight was working with other contractors, access was not such an issue but stage boundaries were agreed upon and a timetable drawn up for the AV delivery – tied to main contractor requirements and other service provisions. First fix requirements in line with main contractor builds were installed prior to main contractor stage plans that could restrict access. Areas such as the Auditorium ceiling works needed to go in early so that the ceiling could be plasterboarded.
Our solution in the lecture theatre was to retain the main projected image but supplement this with additional monitors. 84” wall-mounted monitor screens left and right of the projection screen and 65” and 55” ceiling-mounted monitor screens supporting the rear of the theatre. As the ceiling was being replaced, we installed a new distributed audio solution with ceiling flush-mounted speakers for voice support.
New video switchers from AMX and Digital Sound Processors were installed to manage the video and audio inputs and outputs.
