Though Stockton University sits in the middle of southern New Jersey’s woodsy Pine Barrens, its campus is equipped with the most modern IT and AV technologies. Over 8,600 students attend the institution and have access to more than 180 state-of-the-art classrooms.
“We have been using AMX products for room control for more than 15 years,” says Drew Uth, professional services specialist. “We started partnering with them when the only options in the market were legacy TV control devices that operated over coaxial cables.”
Back then, there were about 12 pieces of equipment per classroom that had to work together.
Different devices controlled audio volume, video switching, scaling and signal detecting. Ten years ago, Stockton’s team brought in the first edition of AMX master controllers. And about five years ago, Enova DVX All-In-One Presentation Switchers were installed in university classrooms.
This switcher combines all the components needed to control a classroom into a single, compact device. Instructors can hook up and project their computer screens in seconds, and AV staff can do audio mixing and amplification, as well as transcode locally and remotely. Scaling can also be done locally and remotely; the DVX ensures all signal outputs are scaled to each display’s individual native resolution.
The DVX is incredibly secure, with reliable speed and performance.
“With the DVX, implementation is incredibly simple,” says Uth. “There is substantially less wiring than with our previous setup. There is one box instead of multiple boxes.”
And because the DVX provides the standardization that reduces maintenance and energy costs, funds at Stockton can be diverted to other purposes.
“We have been able to invest in high-quality technology for all classrooms, such as Apple TVs, top-of-the-line document cameras and high-lumens, high-contrast digital projectors,” says Uth.
The impressive web interface for controlling security, video and audio settings over a network is a key differentiator for Uth, as is the DVX’s overall reliability. There is no question new DVXs will work correctly and can be programmed for the entire Stockton campus with Harman’s Rapid Project Maker (RPM) in under two hours.
“I can unbox a DVX and program a room in under 30 minutes,” says Uth. “Once that model is built, I can copy the code, change the IP address and program another classroom with the same hardware in only a few minutes.”
RPM is a cloud-based programming application that allows for the easy setup of DVXs and the technology to which they need to be connected. Because programming is so simple with RPM, Stockton was able to eliminate the need to rely on a third-party coder.
“Not only was this an expense to the university, but we would often have delays because we had to work around the coder’s schedule,” says Uth. “Now programming is done in minutes, and several people on our team know how to code with RPM.”
Responses and resolutions to AV issues at Stockton are faster than ever with DVXs.
“We can troubleshoot and have full control over the DVX remotely, so most problems can be solved in one or two minutes,” says Uth. “And 99 percent of the time, the issue is user error and not hardware-related.”
For dealing with the rare hardware issues or sharing ideas for new features, Harman is always responsive.
“Stockton has always been a Harman campus and we have no plans to change that,” says Uth. “The support level we receive is second to none.”
For more information, visit www.amx.com/education
