In April 2022, the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media opened the new Curtis Media Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The 13,000-square-foot, three-story building features a broadcast studio and control room, podcast studio, "makerspace" flexible learning area, and two divisible classrooms equipped for HyFlex learning.
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Construction was made possible by a $10 million gift from the family charitable foundation of broadcast entrepreneur Don Curtis, a 1963 alum and founder of Curtis Media Group. "It is my vision that this building will provide a place where dreamers and believers can come and learn for years to come," Curtis said, "and hopefully prepare for a future that makes for a better North Carolina."
The AV system supporting the media-focused activities in the building is the brainchild of Gary Kayye, assistant professor of advertising and public relations, in partnership with Gary Kirk, broadcast and emerging media engineer at the UNC Hussman School. Kontek Systems performed the design, installation, and commissioning of the AV system.
Navigating the LAN
An Extron NAV Pro AV over IP system serves as the building’s AV backbone. Every learning space in the Curtis Media Center can be used to originate and display multimedia content. The AV system can route any source to any destination over a dedicated 1 Gbps AV-over-IP network that includes AES 67 audio.
NAV Pro encoders and decoders provide ingress and egress of AV content to this network. The NAV Pro encoders and decoders convert HDMI signals to IP packets and back again. The packets are routed by standard network switches, allowing scalable matrix switching of AV signals over the LAN. Currently, there are 57 encoders and 57 decoders, and with support for thousands of endpoints, there's plenty of room for growth.
A NAVigator AV over IP system manager configures and controls the NAV Pro endpoints and establishes the connections made through the LAN. The NAVigator has an intuitive, browser-based user interface, providing maintenance personnel with convenient access to all functions. Users in the learning spaces establish their desired AV connections between sources and screens with a couple of taps on their in-room TouchLink Pro touchpanels. NAV Pro AV over IP also streamlines AV system maintenance by allowing remote access to all AV endpoints right from Kirk's office desk.
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"NAV Pro AV over IP and NAVigator are great because NAVigator is remotely accessible," Kirk explained. "I can configure all of the building’s AV end points from my desk. If there’s an AV issue in a classroom that’s in use, I can reroute AV assets from a vacant classroom, allowing teaching to continue while I fix the problem."
Classroom Capabilities
Most of the second and third floors are occupied by classrooms. The rooms on each side of the partitions feature two Epson laser projectors aimed at adjacent walls, while two 75-inch flat panel displays point into the rooms from the partition wall. The third floor includes a seminar space that has the same AV amenities as the classrooms, but without the flat panel displays.
"The classrooms in the Curtis Media Center are true HyFlex classrooms," Kayye explained. "Professors can use instructor reference monitors to see remote students as if they were an extension of the classroom. If students are missing class, they’ll feel more like part of the class because they are getting a two-way experience and the professor can actually see them."
Classroom video is captured by PTZOptics PTZ cameras. Extron pendant speakers, surface mount speakers, and ceiling mount subwoofers provide room audio—while a Nureva Dual HDL300 audio conferencing system provides thousands of virtual microphones with its Microphone Mist technology, which can pinpoint the location of sound originating from anywhere in the space. According to Kayye, each classroom uses its own HDL300, but when the room is opened, the HDL300s connect together to accommodate the larger space.
A pool of Extron SMP 352 streaming media processors in the central AV racks can simultaneously live stream, broadcast, and record presentations from all four classrooms, the seminar space, and the broadcast studio. The processors include Panopto integration that allows them to receive recording schedules from the Panopto video platform as well as streaming live video to Panopto.
The SMP 352s store AV content to internal solid-state memory or a removable USB storage device (for capture and carry) at each classroom’s Middle Atlantic mobile AV rack. Among the equipment in these instructor racks are multiple Extron ShareLink Pro presentation systems, which allow people in the room to share AV content from BYOD sources via HDMI cables or wirelessly through Miracast Wi-Fi. Each rack includes a DTP receiver connected to a DTP HDMI wallplate transmitter, allowing users to plug in HDMI content sources at the wall. Plus, wireless Shure microphones are stored in the rack for in-room voice lift, if needed.
For audio, each AV rack houses Extron audio amplifiers that drive the room speakers and an Extron DMP 128 Plus audio DSP processor that selects, mixes, and optimizes audio sources and connects the room to the Dante/AES 67 network. NAV Pro AV encoders and scaling decoders in the racks connect the rooms to the AV-over-IP network.
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Extron TLS TouchLink room scheduling panels are located outside the doors of all teaching spaces. Users can make on-demand reservations with a few taps on the scheduling panel or from a computer, smartphone, or tablet. Extron’s Room Agent software integrates the scheduling panels to UNC’s 25Live scheduling application.
Studio Assist
On the ground floor is the James F. Goodmon Studio, a professional broadcast studio and control room that features a 16x9-foot LED screen, which fills an entire studio wall. A fiber connection between Curtis Media Center and UNC Athletics facilities allows the studio to originate programs like Sports Xtra, a student-produced show featuring sports highlights, analysis, and commentary, as well as Carolina Now, a live news program. Both shows live stream on Facebook and YouTube.
The broadcast studio has the same SMP 352 live streaming, recording, and Panopto capabilities as the classrooms. It also pulls double duty as a classroom, with the studio’s floor-to-ceiling LED screen functioning as the classroom AV display. Connection to the Dante and AV-over-IP network is similar to the classrooms, via a DMP 128 Plus audio DSP processor and NAV Pro AV encoders and decoders.
The podcast studio and audio workspace on the second floor provides students with real-world podcast and audio production experience. Three podcast mics and three monitor headphones accommodate group discussions, while studio participants can share AV content from BYOD devices via HDMI, Wi-Fi, or USB using Extron ShareLink Pro and MediaPort units. A DMP 128 Plus audio DSP processor selects, mixes, and optimizes audio sources and connects the studio to the Dante/AES 67 network. Equipped with NAV AV over IP, the studio also houses two PTZ cameras and two 75-inch flat panel displays.
Eight Extron IPCP Pro control processors located in the basement AV racks communicate with the AV equipment in all the venues via a dedicated Ethernet AV LAN, controlling all AV equipment in the building while securely isolating AV devices from the college enterprise network. Users can easily select audio and video signals and manage other AV system functions from the touchpanels via interactive GUIs.
According to Kirk, plans are underway to expand the AV-over-IP network, because users are already requesting more endpoints to allow connection of more program sources and more displays. "User feedback about the Curtis Media Center AV systems is very positive," he added. "Thanks to the 'wizard’ style touchpanel interface, users are self-sufficient after a brief onboarding walkthrough. Support calls are minimal."
