Glasgow Caledonian University

The Brief

When COVID-19 hit, universities across the country had to pivot how they approached delivering lessons. In order to properly social distance, many institutions had to quickly adapt to a distance/hybrid learning model. Glasgow Caledonian University knew that they wanted to give their students and faculty the best solution for hybrid learning and Mediascape was there to help. 

Challenges

GCUs IT department was charged with adding lecture capture and Video Conferencing capabilities as a core requirement to a large number of appointed classrooms. With many rooms to work with and a budget that had to be spread across other critical technology upgrades, the University needed something that would deliver first time every time but that was cost effective and scalable. How could they fulfil these requirements without compromising on the quality teaching they were committed too?

Solutions

The solution was initially trialed on a tripod with a USB 3.0 extension and this worked perfectly for the University, particularly in teaching set ups where the lecturer needed to move around the room but this was further developed by installing the cameras permanently into appointed rooms on a ceiling mount bracket with the image inverted. By doing this the camera could be positioned in a location which allowed the lecturer to move freely between the lectern and the whiteboard or projection screen whilst the genius framing feature of the Huddly allowed the camera to move along with them. This allows students to feel like they are getting a more dynamic lesson from their lecturers. When it came to training faculty, simple integration with their existing classroom standard model meant minimal additional settings or controls for the faculty. The Huddly IQ is extremely simple to use which was important as staff were already adjusting to an entirely new way of delivering instruction and engaging with their students.

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The Huddly IQ Camera has over the last few years made its mark as one of the best high-end webcams on the market, but its application was widely in the corporate boardroom rather than the classroom. The key qualities that made the Huddly perfect for the University was its genius framing capability and impressive built-in microphone, its small size meant that it could be installed with little fuss and its intuitive technology meant that it was simple to set up and to use.

The Huddly itself was all that was needed to make a room VC ready.

Outcomes

The University are delighted with the quality solution the Huddly provides. To install tracking cameras into many rooms would have been a costly solution. The power and capability of the camera at a cost effective price point allows them to roll out the systems into a greater number of their rooms than they initially had hoped for and so increasing their capability for hybrid teaching during these challenging times and into the future.

Joe Logan, IT/AV Manager at Glasgow Caledonian University says: “The academic staff are delighted with the addition of the Huddly to their teaching rooms. The camera and mic work perfectly for hybrid teaching and we now have them in our Glasgow and London campuses and plan for them to be installed in our New York campus soon.” 

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