With more than 130 years in operation, the Brooklyn Law School wanted to ensure that classes could restart up continue safely and efficiently in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. To achieve a safe level of social distancing, the school moved to a hybrid attendance model, with only half of its students in classrooms at any one time. To do this, its seminar-based classrooms were required to be equipped with an A/V solution that would allow remote students to hear and interact as efficiently as possible.

The classrooms had an A/V system based on lavalier microphones, but mics were often misplaced, and students sometimes neglected to turn them on. In addition to the distance learning capabilities, the school wanted a solution that would allow a professor to walk in, start the Zoom meeting, and get straight to the instruction.

Shadowbox Design Management – a full-service AV systems integration and event production company – was charged with management of the project. ‘They didn’t want the instructors to have to worry about any equipment problems; they needed a system that’s simple to operate with complete, high-quality coverage that just worked,’ says Shadowbox Vice President, Joseph Ondrek. ‘These were issues they wanted to correct before the pandemic, but the distance-learning requirements brought home the need for a new approach to their AV system and a significant technology upgrade.’

The Shadowbox team handled concept, design and installation work for the project, and began by upgrading two primary lecture-style classrooms with multiple Sennheiser TeamConnect in-ceiling microphones in each room. For output, they installed in-ceiling speakers in each classroom, powered by amplifiers from LEA Professional.

‘The audio is integrated with a QSC Q-Sys Ecosystem linked to a PC running Zoom so that remote students could hear and interact with the students and teacher in the class seamlessly,’ Ondrek says. ‘We used one QSC Core to manage both rooms, using Dante to route audio to the second room using the school’s existing LAN.’

The audio system delivers audio through Zoom to the remote students, providing voice lift across the classroom from the teacher to the students. Ondrek reports that students in the classrooms – including those T the extreme sides of the rooms and at the back – can hear clearly, be heard clearly and interact optimally.

‘The LEA amplifiers gave us the channel count we needed to distribute audio throughout the different arrays and groups that we needed to divide up the speakers in the room,’ says Ondrek. ‘They have two rooms running off of one QSC core, the first room has analogue connections right out of the core, but the second room’s audio connections are made through Dante, so we’re able to leverage the school’s IT network to take the Dante from one classroom to the other instead of having to run extra cables.’

The Shadowbox team has used LEA amplifiers in the past and has been impressed with the quality and out-of-the-box capabilities. ‘We’ve used LEA for a couple of other installs, and it’s great to have all the functionality and the easy web-interface as standard features,’ Ondrek confirms. ‘We can get right into the system remotely with just a phone – we had an issue with one of the power supplies, and an emoji notified us immediately.’

Ondrek explains that this was a full A/V system upgrade, with audio and projection systems properly integrated. ‘The professors don’t have to worry about the mics, speakers, amps or any system components being on or anything like that – it’s a high-quality, functional, and easy-to-use system,’ Ondrek says. ‘We designed the system to be as intuitive as possible. The instructors go through a brief system orientation, and within about 15 minutes, they are comfortable and up and running without any issues or concerns.

‘The school is happy, and I’m happy with LEA,’ he adds. ‘The amps are great, and LEA tech support has been phenomenal. Every time I’ve emailed, I’ve received a response back within an hour, and anytime I call, I connect with people who are more than happy to walk me through the entire process. We will be working with LEA Professional on future projects for sure.’