Campbell University in Buies Creek, NC celebrated the opening of its new First Citizens Wealth Management Center at the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business on October 14, 2015. Housed in a former library at the school, the new 7,250-square-foot center features numerous LED screens, 32 computer stations, and 105 feet of LED stock ticker display.
Rise Display of Lenexa, KS supplied and installed the ticker display, which runs along two walls of the classroom and in a rectangle above the entrance lobby, at the First Citizens Wealth Management Center at the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business at Campbell University. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Edward Fulbara, School of Business interim dean, commented that the new center “will prepare [students] for the technology they will face in the workplace. It will facilitate research, as well, for our faculty members. It will help us to continue to add new majors and teach new skills in the School of Business.”
First Citizens Bank provided the lead gift—$250,000—for the $1 million project. The center serves as a learning lab, simulating an investment firm environment, a trading room, and a trust center. Resources include Bloomberg and other cutting-edge financial planning banking systems software and a TOLI Vault fiduciary accounting system.
Campbell Business began offering an undergraduate major in finance beginning with the 2015-16 academic year. Campbell’s trust and wealth management program is reportedly the only one of its kind in the U.S.
The display technology and audio systems for the new financial lab were designed and integrated by Tri-Tronics Pro Electronics, located in Lillington, NC. Specialist manufacturer Rise Display of Lenexa, KS supplied and installed the ticker display, which runs along two walls of the classroom and in a rectangle above the entrance lobby.
“We were contacted by Mark Gibbons, who is the IT director of the medical school at Campbell University,” recalled Tommy Nipper, operations manager, Tri-Tronics. “He was working in conjunction with Dr. Faulkner, who had brainstormed an idea of having a learning environment where the kids could have real-time information fed to them from the stock market.” Faulkner, formerly dean of the business school, has since taken a position at another university.
Housed in a former library at the school, the new 7,250-square-foot First Citizens Wealth Management Center features numerous LED screens, 32 computer stations, and 105 feet of LED stock ticker display. Aaron Todd, lead technician at Tri-Tronics, ran with the concept and designed an AV system that met with the university’s approval. “The center of the system is a Crestron DigitalMedia DM-MD16x16 matrix. That’s the backbone; everything is flowing into it.”
He continued, “They wanted the ability to do a couple of things. One is to have stock tickers on all the displays. Another thing is that they wanted to be able to huddle around each of the individual 65-inch Samsung DM65 displays, which look like they’re built into the walls.” There is also an 82-inch Samsung DM82D LED display at the front of the classroom.
Tri-Tronics installed five Crestron’s AirMedia AM-100 Presentation Gateways, which enable students to wirelessly display content from tablets or laptops on the screens via app or browser. “Students can stand around the displays and be able to present and collaborate. With those you can do a Quad View, where you’re sharing the screen with up to four different computers.”
In one corner, next to the windows, is a video wall comprised of four NEC X554UNS LED displays. “Those NEC displays make it really easy to do a video wall. You just tell each display what quadrant it is. That makes it really easy to install those things,” Todd commented.
The classroom features a lecture capture system fed from a variety of sources. An Epifan Systems DVI2USB, an external USB card, is available to capture video from any VGA, DVI, or HDMI source. “They use software called Tegrity to do their lecture capture; they use that all over the university,” Todd said.
“They directly capture what’s coming through the computer, then they’ve also got a networked PTZ video camera, an Axis P5534. They capture both the lecture media and lecture video at the same time with Tegrity.”
As for audio, he said, “For the teacher we have a Shure SLX14/85 (wireless lavalier mic system) and an SLX24/SM58 (handheld wireless mic system).” The microphones are mixed via a Shure IntelliMix eight-channel digital automatic mixer, which also feeds Community D8 ceiling speakers in addition to the capture setup.
“In the ceiling we have some of the Audio-Technica ES945W boundary mics,” Todd reported. “Those are to capture student responses.”
“On the outside, in the hallway, there are two Samsung DM55 displays that run FOX News and CNN news feeds,” added Nipper. “There’s also digital signage at each entry to the business school, which allows students to stay up to date with what’s going on at that school and on campus. That’s running Samsung’s MagicInfo (content creation and management software); they seem to like that, and it works well.”
Steve Harvey (sharvey.prosound@gmail.com) has been west coast editor for Pro Sound News since 2000 and also contributes to TV Technology, Pro Audio Review, and other NewBay titles. He has over 30 years of hands-on experience with a wide range of audio production technologies.
