Education Today Education Today Magazine
Alexandra Parlour, European Marcoms and Education Marketing Manager at Sony Professional Displays and Solutions
Sony experienced significant momentum in the Education sector across Europe during and after the COVID-19 pandemic to support universities in offering students the best learning experience. It saw a growing demand for its education solutions and technology to not only support universities during remote learning, but also modernise in preparation for the future of a more blended and hybrid learning approach.
In a changed world, hybrid learning has become central to teaching and learning strategies for students at all levels, and Sony recently conducted research which demonstrated the major gaps when it comes to the technology universities are providing, and what students need for success. At Sony we are proud to know that, in the face of many challenges, we are working with the most innovative institutes in Europe to better the learning experience for both teachers and students alike.
The prestigious Comillas University, with over 15,000 students in Spain, kitted out its 228 classrooms for this bimodal set-up with Sony SRG cameras and Sony MAS-A100 hands-free beamforming microphones. Luis Francisco Blanco, CIO of Comillas University, explains: “Following the COVID-19 crisis and seeing that we would need to continue teaching our students from home, we started to plan possible future scenarios back in May 2020. When we saw the possibilities afforded by Sony solutions, we didn’t think twice. We wanted to offer an experience that was as close as possible to physically being in class and, with Sony, we have achieved that. Comillas University has developed a system called simultaneous bimodality which consists of half virtual and half physical contact with the students to make sure they all receive the optimal experience from us regardless of where they are.”
The University of Lausanne in Switzerland, the leading higher teaching and research institution home to approximately 15,000 students, opted for a tailor-made solution including Sony’s Edge Analytics tool with tracking and handwriting extraction, and SRG cameras for their powerful optical zoom, full HD image quality and wide viewing angle to ensure crisp image capture from a distance. Since implementing the solution, the University has seen some impressive statistics, including over 12,000 videos added, 9 million video views, and 5 million unique visits from its students. “The COVID-19 pandemic forced a rethink of the way we and other educators interact with our students, and our long-standing and trusting relationship with Sony made us very confident that they would be able to deliver a solution tailored to our requirements and for our students in these unprecedented times.” Comments Olivier Grosjean from the University of Lausanne.
The multidisciplinary institution, Institut Catholique de Lille, home to more than 12,000 students chose Sony products and solutions to equip its learning spaces, including lecture theatres, classrooms, and learning labs. It equipped its new premises with more recent Sony technologies, such as the VPL-PHZ50 3LCD laser projector, and at the same time, in the interest of co-modality, it is equipping rooms with Sony BRCX400 and BRC-X1000 PTZ cameras to offer the teachers and users the best possible experience, whether they are present in the room or viewing remotely. The establishment is also testing MASA100 beamforming microphone products in its studios to record audio alongside video capture and to allow for live streaming. “Although we
were already looking to invest in technology with a view to offering a hybrid learning model combining in-person teaching and remote learning, the COVID-19 pandemic enabled us to intensify and speed up the roll-out of certain solutions and new installations, such as our recording studios. Sony guided us through this process and helped us to address the teaching challenges encountered during the pandemic,” states Vianney Delory, Head of Learning Environments and Multimedia at the Institut Catholique de Lille.
For more information on Sony’s education solutions, please visit: https://pro.sony/solutions/education
