Origination classrooms represent our most elaborate room configuration, featuring multiple cameras, displays, microphones, and diverse room layouts. It's no suprise that transitioning these rooms to Zoom Rooms has involved some trial and error.
Zoom Rooms provide a lot of flexibility. They can run off a computer or appliance, and have multiple options for cameras, microphones, touchpanel controls and other accessories. This has been great, but we have learned some things (and are still learning) as we've experimented with different room configurations:
- Product Availability: Products from some vendors aren't always readily available. In a few instances, we have had to pivot to alternative products due to availability constraints.
- Compatibility Issues: Not all accessories work nicely with Zoom Rooms. We learned this the hard way when we had some issues with a few of our HDMI extenders. When picking accessories, refer to Zoom Recommended Hardware.
Due to different room layouts, equipment availability, and experimentation, we have a few different origination setups. Explore them below.
Logitech Classrooms - DE 211
DE 211 is one of our designated beta classrooms where we evaluate technology and furniture for function, and gauge faculty and student experience. It's currently equipped with almost all Logitech equipment, taking a system that was designed for a conference room and moving it into a classroom. Part of this came about after a previous Zoom Edu Summit when we learned Logitech's Rally Camera can work with their Rally Bar. This is a proof of concept project in collaboration with Logitech.
A few notable room features:
- Unlike our other originating classrooms, DE 211 doesn't have a lapel microphone for the instructor. Instead, four Rally Mic Pods hang from the ceiling capturing both the instructor and students. We were really interested to see how well this would work. While you can't beat the quality of a lapel mic, we've found the Rally Mic Pods work suprisingly well at picking up the instructor.
- The room includes a Logitech Scribe that captures and shares what is written on the whiteboard in the room. A simple press of a button on the instructor's desk, starts sharing the whiteboard over Zoom.
- The Rally Bar provides 2 HDMI outputs and an additional output using one of the USB ports. We take advantage of all three outputs for the TVs in the room.
- In addition to Logitech, in this room we are evaluating Steelcase furniture.
Additional Information
Equipment Used
| Item | Vendor |
|---|---|
| Zoom Room Appliance | Logitech Rally Bar |
| Instructor Camera | Logitech Rally Camera |
| Student Camera | Logitech Rally Bar |
| Microphones | 4 Rally Mic Pods hung from the ceiling with the Mic Pod Pendant Mount |
| Touch Panel | Logitech Tap IP |
| Instructor Computer | Microsoft Surface Studio, plugged into the HDMI input of the Rally Bar |
| Laptop Connection | Zoom app |
| Whiteboard Capture | Logitech Scribe |
| Other |
HDMI Extenders: Crestron |
Diagrams
Crestron Classrooms, HH 270 & 326
Crestron has been part of our classroom ecosystem for over 30 years with Crestron processors and touchpanels controlling most of our campus classrooms. In our Zoom Rooms we've configured the Crestron touchpanels to switch between our standard face-to-face interface and the Zoom Rooms interface. The Crestron system allows us to customize the Zoom User Interface with our custom controls for room equipment such as projectors, lighting, and motorized projection screens. Updates to the Zoom and Crestron applications allow us to present our custom controls in a more integrated and seamless way within the Zoom UI. Custom room controls now support real time status, showing actual Power On and other indicators.
We continue to upgrade and enhance these rooms.
Equipment Used
| Item | Vendor |
|---|---|
| Zoom Room Compute | HP Z2g9 |
| Instructor Camera | Aver TR313V2 camera |
| Student Camera | Aver TR313V2 camera |
| Microphones | Rode Shotgun Mics |
| Touch Panel | Crestron TS-1070 |
| Instructor Computer | HP Z2g9 (soon to be a Microsoft Surface Studio) Video is sent to the Zoom Room Compute using the Magewell USB Capture HDMI Gen 2 |
| Laptop Connection | Zoom app |
| AV Processor | Crestron CP3 or CP4 |
| Other | Audio Mixer: BSS Mixers Video Extenders: Crestron NVX |
Q-SYS Classrooms, DE 105
Due to limited product availability and shipping delays caused by the pandemic, we needed alternatives. We used the opportunity to evaluate the control processors, touchpanels, audio mixers, and cameras offered by Q-SYS - which provides features and capabilities similar to our standard Crestron hardware.
In this room, we chose to use Q-SYS cameras in addition to a Q-SYS processor, although third-party cameras can be used as well. All cameras and microphones in the room connect to the Q-SYS processor, which handles all the video, audio, and control in the room. A single USB cable connects the processor to the Zoom Rooms Compute device, in this case an HP computer.
We're continuing to explore Q-SYS offerings and continue to refine the room design.
Equipment Used
| Item | Vendor |
|---|---|
| Zoom Room Compute | HP Z2g9 |
| Instructor Camera | Q-SYS NC20X60 |
| Student Camera | Q-SYS NC12X80 |
| Microphones | Instructor Mic: Shure QLXD lapel mic Student Mic: Shure push to talk desktop mics |
| Touch Panel | Logitech Tap IP |
| Instructor Computer | Microsoft Surface Studio Video is sent to the Zoom Room Compute using the Magewell USB Capture HDMI Gen 2. |
| Laptop Connection | Zoom app |
| AV Processor | Q-SYS Core 8 Flex |
| Other | HDMI Extenders: Crestron |