The state’s largest school and most comprehensive center of higher education south of Atlanta, Georgia Southern University is home to more than 26,000 students from across the U.S. The school is committed to going above and beyond to provide and maintain an environment that encourages learning, discovery, and personal growth.
THE CHALLENGE
In 2017, as part of its initiative to broaden and redesign academic programs to better serve students, Georgia Southern focused on reinvesting savings into academics to improve student success. In keeping with this mission, Ron Stalnaker, Chief Information Officer, and John David Walker, Manager - AV, Classroom, and Digital Signage Design, were charged with updating the school's technology standard and modernizing classrooms across the University's Statesboro, Armstrong, and Liberty campuses.
With three campuses, managing technology can be difficult. John and his team wanted to not only create a simple, consistent user experience across every classroom to help minimize help desk calls and maximize uptime, but also provide that same level of control and simplicity to system managers. “We needed to find a solution that would reduce the cost of deploying and managing the technology in each space as our university continues to grow,” says Walker.
THE SOLUTION
When evaluating new technology, John and his team always observe “The Three S’s”: Service, Simplicity, and Speed. It must enable them to provide quality service to students and faculty; provide a simple, yet intuitive, user experience; and allow for speedy delivery. Crestron DigitalMedia™ and .AV Framework™ technologies met all three criteria.
“Consistency is important to us, and as we continue to revolutionize classrooms across all of our campuses, it is our job to ensure that all of these spaces are consistent and reliable,” says Walker. “By standardizing on Crestron DigitalMedia for AV distribution and .AV Framework for system configuration and deployment, we were able to deliver on these promises with ease.”
RESULTS
While Crestron technology isn’t new to the Georgia Southern campus, the new system standard developed by the AV, Classroom, and Digital Signage Design Team has simplified the installation process and made managing and monitoring each classroom easier and more efficient.
In the last 18 months, Georgia Southern has updated the AV technology in more than 300 classrooms across its campuses. Faculty and staff appreciate the consistent experience in every classroom and meeting space, especially when traveling from campus to campus.
“.AV Framework has helped our technicians efficiently support more spaces, allowing us to create a more connected campus and ensure a seamless user experience,” explains Walker.
