The Introduction

Based in Towson MD, Towson University’s College of Health Professions offers undergraduate and masters, graduate certificate, and doctoral programs designed to prepare professionals for roles in a variety of clinical, teaching, and community health and wellness settings. The new academic building offers an abundance of natural light, wellness spaces, high-tech labs and classrooms, collaborative learning spaces, and advanced simulation centers for hands-on experiential learning that closely resemble real-world healthcare settings.

Learn more: https://www.towson.edu/chp/

The Challenge

Towson University envisioned a state-of-the-art health professions building uniting diverse disciplines to train future healthcare practitioners. Collaborating closely with Towson and its partners, Visual Sound transformed this vision into reality by integrating practical, reliable, and future-focused AV solutions that enhance collaboration, innovative learning, and campus life across the 240,000-square-foot facility.

The Solution & Spaces

Project Scope & Facility Overview

The College of Health Professions community is a unique cluster of academic learning spaces, common areas, and conference rooms for truly collaborative health and wellness education, including:

• 350-seat auditorium and lecture hall
• Auditorium AV control room
• 19 collaborative classrooms
• 10 specialty high-tech interprofessional labs
• 8 audiology diagnostic labs
• State-of-the-art simulation center
• Conference rooms
• Collaboration zones

Auditorium and Lecture Hall:

Designed to bring different disciplines together and enhance interprofessional collaboration and education, Visual Sound equipped this 350-seat venue, and adjacent control room, with a fully integrated audio visual presentation and lecture capture system. To increase outcomes for large group instruction, Visual Sound installed an expansive high-definition video wall and crystal clear audio, ensuring presentations are seen and heard from every seat in the room. For added benefit, the Absen DVLED video wall, powered by a Novastar H5 video wall controller, can display up to three ultra-high resolution source images.

Auditorium AV Presentation System:

From an integrated AV presentation system, including a modern lectern, annotative flat panel display/confidence monitor, keyboard, Vaddio PTZ camera, Shure gooseneck microphone, Elmo PX-30E document camera, and Crestron touchscreen controller, Towson’s faculty can efficiently and effectively communicate course materials to students.

This fully integrated setup simplifies and automates the control of room settings and AV devices in the space, providing presenters with a worry-free way of speaking and content sharing.

Auditorium AV Control Room:

For more extensive control operations, operators work out of an adjacent AV control room with sight lines into the auditorium. This behind-the-scenes booth houses all of the auditorium’s AV racks and features sophisticated equipment for video switching, graphics mixing, camera, lighting, and sound adjustments. The suite of AV allows Towson’s staff the ability to capture and record lectures and live stream productions and events with quality video and high fidelity sound.

Collaborative Classrooms:

High-tech and adaptable learning environments, including active learning classrooms and seminar classrooms for large group lectures and presentations, were purposely outfitted with integrated audio visual technology systems that facilitate active learning in the spaces, and beyond.

Left: Biamp AVB Beamtracking ceiling pendant microphones were used to create a clean modern look, reduce tabletop clutter, and provide 360-degree voice audio pickup coverage from anywhere in the room. In addition, tabletop touchscreen control devices, from Crestron, allow for simplified operations of AV equipment and room settings.

Middle: Collaborative training rooms, with strategically placed lecterns, LG digital displays, Vaddio PTZ cameras, Biamp ceiling pendant microphones, and Bose ceiling speakers allow for enhanced audio and viewing experiences and improved training outcomes.

Right: Strategically placed projectors, projection screens, speakers, and microphones allow for larger groups of students to view faculty presentations and work comfortably and collaboratively.

Specialty Interprofessional Labs:

Healthcare Simulation Center:

The College of Health Profession’s state-of-the-art healthcare simulation center gives students the ability to develop their skills in hands-on patient care, and to practice for acute, multi-patient, and primary care scenarios. Using high-fidelity medical simulation and other healthcare practitioner training methods, this AV-enabled learning environment is designed to model today’s hospital and emergency rooms – preparing providers to be agile, collaborative, and inspired in real-world settings.

Conference Rooms:

“The College of Health Professions, and our new building, is all about our students and putting them in the best position for their success. We’ve specifically designed and built spaces that were helpful to the longevity of their career.”

– Lisa Ann Plowfield, PhD, RN , Dean of the College of Health Professions

Collaboration Zones:

Strategically located throughout the building, collaboration zones allow for the spontaneous gathering of faculty and students to explore the latest evidenced based research. Each space is outfitted with ergonomic and ADA compliant furniture and high resolution LG digital displays that allow for wired and wireless content sharing and video conferencing from laptops and other bring your own devices (BYODs).

Digital Signage:

Throughout the building, interactive digital signage provides students, faculty, and visitors with important tailored content including, wayfinding information, campus-related brand messaging, and important alerts and updates.

The Results:

Now fully operational, Visual Sound delivered a comprehensive package of audio visual solutions that fosters immersive practice and experiential learning across the College of Health Professions campus. The building is now abuzz with students and academic staff who are empowered to explore, collaborate, lounge, and learn utilizing advanced and intuitive audio visual technology throughout the facility. Towson’s IT staff and administration were extremely pleased with the overall results and thankful for the innovative, practical, and flexible AV solutions that Visual Sound implemented.

AV now plays a crucial and supportive role in daily learning activities and campus life experiences. Most importantly, the AV and technology Visual Sound deployed is now an integral part of the ecosystem of this inspiring learning environment that prepares students for important careers in healthcare. In addition, Visual Sound’s service team supports the building’s AV technology with remote monitoring and AV managed services to ensure critical system uptime – contributing to the long-term success of the College of Health Profession’s programs.
Credits:

Architects: Perkins&Will in association with JMT Architects
Construction: Gilbane Building Company
Audio Visual Design Consultant: Convergent Technologies Design Group, Inc.

Why Visual Sound?

Audio visual solutions. Beyond the four walls.

Partnering with enterprises and industries, Visual Sound helps imagine, design, build, install, and support the audio visual environments and experiences that unlock human potential. Wherever they work, learn, play, or congregate.

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