Universities are in full budget mode right now, and audio visual infrastructure is a common line item getting attention. Savvy students are looking at college and university technology before making final decisions on attending and educational institutions who are more cutting edge are winning out. 

This can also be true of the struggle for top talent. As universities look to recruit educators, these professors and other educational workers also seek schools that have invested in newer technology that will improve their workplace.

Common audio video projects being considered include video walls used for conveying information, communicating messages to faculty and students as well as visitors, and collaboration that includes both distance and remote learning.

One area getting a lot of the focus is the athletic facilities on every campus. Investments in these multi-use buildings can pay off in many ways over the long run. Newer technology improves the overall experience of sporting events, student engagement, and can even allow for the investment to return a profit when the more immersive looking technology attracts outside organizations looking to rent facilities with the latest audio visual equipment in order to elevate their private events.

Multiple Use Athletic Facilities

Investments in athletic facilities goes beyond the ability to promote the school image to students and alumni. With athletic events drawing some of the largest numbers on campuses, reaching students, families, alumni (including donors) the right audio visual technology is key in providing effective wayfinding digital signage, university promotion, building pride, and offering live and instant replay aspects of the event in progress.  

Graduation ceremonies benefit from each of these ways as well, but for a different type of event where students, families, alumni, faculty and staff all benefit from being able to see and hear what is important.

Benefits of updated audio visual technology include scalable video walls that can fit to any space, size or budget, seamless viewing of displays with thinner bezels (or no bezels) for an improved view, lower maintenance compared to projection systems, and much brighter images not affected by ambient light.

Other Higher Education AV Investments

One of the other larger building areas colleges and universities are investing with their budgets right now is in their visitor and student center areas. Projects using video walls are being integrated to enhance the campus experience. These areas are also typically used as a place to feature student artwork and/or accomplishments.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) solutions can benefit teaching rooms, labs and collaborative learning areas and provide a more immersive and realistic educational experience with the simulation of environments for training and other purposes.

Classrooms, lecture halls, and even smaller collaboration and huddle spaces are getting facelifts to assist with remote and interactive e-learning or distance learning objectives. 

Today’s college students prefer modern technology to be a part of their learning and collaboration, and institutions are adopting more advanced audiovisual solutions to compete for these digital-first scholars that grew up with screens in their hand, in order to improve their overall offerings.

IGI has integrated large scale solutions for colleges and universities for many years, and has specialized in video wall technology for almost 25 years. With IGI, your project will be “turnkey” with a single point of contact, as all aspects (custom design, fabrication, integration and ongoing support) are handled in-house. Having one integrator/contractor take care of it all is just simpler.

About IGI:

Immersion Graphics, Inc. (IGI) provides audio visual design, engineering, consulting, product sales, control system programming, custom fabrication, installation, preventative maintenance, and extended support services out of its headquarters location in Detroit and west coast operation in Los Angeles. Additional offices are located in Indianapolis, and Grand Rapids.

Founded in 1998, IGI has installed numerous large-scale, ultra-high resolution systems throughout the U.S. in the automotive, higher education, medical, financial, and energy transmission markets, and for the United States military and other government agencies. Applications include industrial design, engineering and data visualization, mission-critical command & control room environments, presentation systems, video conferencing, digital signage, and a variety of commercial AV solutions for emerging markets where the simultaneous visualization of 3D models and complex data by a group is essential to effective decision making. To get an in depth look at what we do, see our website at www.werigi.com, we are IGI.

IGI is minority owned, veteran owned, and a small business and SBA 8(a) program graduate.