Extron NAV Pro AV over IP Equips JB Duke Hotel with Sophisticated Audiovisual Capabilities

The JB Duke Hotel and Conference Center in Durham, North Carolina is owned by Duke University and managed by JBD Hospitality, LLC. Set among the towering pines of an old growth forest managed by the University, the AAA Four Diamond rated property hosts executives and leisure travelers from around the world. Steps away from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business, it is a preferred destination for the school’s students, faculty, and guests.

CHALLENGES

The hotel was built in 1989 to serve dining and accommodation needs of the Fuqua School of Business. During recent renovations, guest rooms, dining facilities, ballrooms, and meeting spaces were remodeled to create a sleek, modern facility. That included equipping many venues with audiovisual capability. Technology advances made updating the AV systems a priority. Extron NAV^® Pro AV over IP is a key part of the AV system refresh.

DESIGN SOLUTION

Glaxo and Executive Classrooms

Because the University is the primary tenant of the Hotel’s Glaxo and Executive Classrooms, these were the first rooms to get an AV refresh. The goal is to ensure that all meeting and collaboration spaces stay technologically up-to-date.

The Glaxo Classroom and the Executive Classroom are identical 1,460 square foot executive spaces featuring tiered seating for 65 with acoustics optimized for speaker events. The Fuqua Business School conducts executive MBA classes in these rooms for students who typically stay in the hotel for the weekend or one-to-two-week durations of the courses. The rooms also host business meetings and colloquia. Adjoining each room is a pre-function area with casual seating, work surfaces, coffee, and snack bars. Several AV-equipped breakout rooms are located steps away.

JB Duke’s Director of IT David Johnson and Network Administrator Bill Turner worked with pro AV integrator Recursav of nearby Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to design and install the AV upgrades in the two classrooms. Identical AV systems are installed in both rooms. Recursav has considerable experience with NAV Pro AV over IP at other higher-education institutions, where NAV impressed users with its solid performance, flexibility, and reliability. That made NAV the preferred choice for AV content distribution for the Glaxo and Executive classrooms.

NAV Distributes Video, Audio, USB From Many Sources to Many Destinations:

Tech Booths. The Glaxo and Executive Classrooms both have a back-stage tech booth housing AV system central functions. These include an 8x8 DXP HD 4K PLUS matrix switcher and core components of the NAV Pro AV over IP network, comprised of NAV E 101 HDMI encoders for video and audio distribution, NAV E 501 HDMI/Ethernet/USB encoders for KVM keyboard and mouse extension, NAV SD 101 scaling decoders, a 48-port Ethernet switch and a NAVigator system manager. AV system control is handled by an Extron control processor. Core audio functions also reside in the tech booth, including AES67/Dante-enabled audio amplifiers, an audio DSP Processor, AXI 22 AT and AXI 44 AT Dante Audio Interface units, and an HAI 100 4K Plus HDMI Audio Embedder.

We specified NAV Pro AV over IP based on its flexibility. Extron validated our design. They commissioned the system remotely, which was a real time saver. They checked how we configured the network switches, verified firmware, and confirmed that all NAV encoders and decoders were configured correctly.

Displays and Panopto Integration. At the front of each room is a projection screen. The motorized projection screen lowers over whiteboards, with a ceiling-mounted laser projector aimed at the screen. Flanking the projection screen are two 85” flat panel displays. Two PC’s at the lectern provide interfaces to Duke University’s Panopto video content management platform to make recordings and to stream to remote participants. Each display and both Panopto PCs are equipped with a NAV SD 101 scaling decoder to provide HDMI content from the NAV Pro AV over IP network. The Panopto PCs are also cross strapped for redundancy through DA2 HD 4K PLUS distribution amplifiers.

AV Content from Business School and Hotel. The data networks of the Fuqua business school and JB Duke Hotel connect to two PCs in the Glaxo and Executive Classroom tech booths that accept AV content delivered via the data networks and output it as HDMI. The content is then distributed via the NAV Pro AV over IP network to the in-room displays and to Duke’s Panopto video content management platform. A third tech booth PC provides AV content sourced from within the classrooms.

PTZ Cameras. Each room is equipped with front and back PTZ cameras. The front camera, mounted above the lectern, is manually controlled. The rear camera, pointing toward the lectern, has AI-assisted auto-tracking, handwriting recognition, focus area cropping, and gesture-triggered zoom. DTP transmitters and receivers link the rear camera to its controller. Both cameras are endpoints on the AV over IP network, allowing the images they capture to be shown on any of the displays and streamed to Panopto for remote participants.

Digital Media Player and BYOD Screen Mirroring. For those who bring their own portable media, a digital media player is one of the HDMI sources feeding into the NAV Pro AV over IP network. The player accepts video files from USB flash drives and SD memory cards and has a handheld remote. A wireless screen mirroring receiver allows room occupants to cast from their BYOD portable devices into the AV over IP network to display their content on the big screens.

AV-Equipped Lectern. The lectern houses an AV over IP subnet built around its own 16-port network switch. HDMI AV content originates from the lectern’s dual-display laptop and document camera, delivered to the network switch via NAV E 101 encoders. Three video monitors are available to display the lectern AV content. Two of the monitors are mounted on the lectern, and one is on a mobile cart. All three connect to the lectern's AV over IP switch using NAV SD 101 scaling decoders. This switch links to the main AV over IP switch in the tech booth via Ethernet, allowing content from the lectern to display on the room’s big screens or stream to Panopto.

Our (non-Extron) legacy AV systems are difficult to maintain. Control system programming requires coding and compiling, contrasted with Extron’s drag-and-drop Global Configurator Pro. Some vendors restrict end users like us from training and certification, whereas Extron freely provides these services. Our goal is to do all first-line maintenance in-house. Our 24/7 environment demands that if something's broken, we need to fix it fast. These two rooms are the first of several projects that aim to convert the entire property to Extron AV.

Audio. Dante audio networking and audio DSP tailor the sound in the Executive and Glaxo Classrooms to accommodate all meeting formats. A gooseneck microphone allows presenters to speak from the lectern. Presenters who prefer to walk around use two bodypack wireless microphones linked to a receiver inside the lectern. Ceiling microphones capture audience voices. The PCs, media players, and screen mirroring wireless access points also feed audio into the Dante audio network through AXI 44 AT and AXI 22 AT Dante Audio Interface units and HAI 100 4K Plus HDMI Audio Embedder units. High-powered amplifiers drive a variety of ceiling mounted and wall mounted speakers. Audio is also streamed to Panopto for those listening remotely.

AV System Control. The AV control system is centered around an IPCP Pro 555Q xi control processor in each room. The control processors regulate operation of all Extron and third-party AV equipment via Ethernet, serial, IR/serial, and relays. NAV E 501 encoders provide USB KVM extension between the rooms’ multiple PCs and a keyboard, mouse, presentation remote controller, and USB connection dock on the lectern desktop. Each room is equipped with two 12" ultra-wide tabletop TouchLink^® Pro touchpanels that enable user control from either the back-stage tech booth or the lectern. The touchpanels include an HDMI input that provides full motion video preview from the NAV Pro AV over IP network.

End users need very little help using the system. We designed the user interface with specific scenarios that default to correct audio/video ties for various kinds of events. We prototyped the touchpanel GUIs in Photoshop and Recursav implemented them. Since deployment, we’ve modified the GUIs ourselves based on user feedback. GUI Designer and Global Configurator Pro give us the ability to take ownership of these updates.

RESULTS

For working professionals, the weekend Executive MBA program hosted in the JB Duke classrooms is attractive because it’s designed for those who want short-burst intensive residencies with three-day weekend sessions on campus followed by distance sessions. This format provides knowledge building and interaction in a face-to-face setting coupled with the hybrid format in distance sessions, with minimum impact on the work and family commitments of students.

Without the guest accommodations afforded by the JB Duke hotel and the audiovisual capabilities built into the Glaxo and Executive Classrooms for both on-site and remote learning, the Executive MBA program teaching format would be hard to deliver. These facilities make it possible and are a great asset to Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

Beyond the school’s own use of the JB Duke Hotel meeting and guest accommodation facilities, the hotel hosts many business and social gatherings booked by third parties. This includes recurring training and colloquia sessions conducted by defense, pharmaceutical, and other enterprises from North Carolina’s vibrant high-tech business hubs and beyond. The hotel’s income from these gatherings accrues to the University’s bottom line, making the JB Duke Hotel a valuable profit center that helps to support Duke University’s educational mission.

JB DUKE HOTEL AND CONFERENCE CENTER VIDEO LINKS

Take a virtual tour of the Glaxo and Executive Classrooms.

Learn how AV tools in Duke University learning spaces support smooth and natural distance learning sessions.

Sony demonstration video shows capabilities of the Glaxo and Executive Classroom rear PTZ cameras.

Photos, distance learning video, and virtual tours courtesy of JB Duke Hotel and Event Center

PTZ camera demonstration video courtesy of Sony

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