- This is a story of co-operation and networking, of a modern approach to a discipline steeped in tradition. The Universities of Hull and York joined together to form a new medical school with students in both universities and hospital located units across North and East Yorkshire.
"This is something new. We are one school with 65 students in Hull and 65 students in York and the video link is crucial in giving everyone the same experience. We want them to feel like a single class, and they tell us that it works."
- From day one, it was decided that for undergraduate plenary lectures neither students nor lecturers would be required to travel. The lecture would be given at Hull or in York and the students would attend their local lecture theatre. The systems to support this idea feature some of the most advanced videoconference and control systems installed in a university network in Europe. As Giles Davidson comments: "This is something new. We are one school with 65 students in Hull and 65 students in York and the video link is crucial in giving everyone the same experience. We want them to feel like a single class, and they tell us that it works."
- Giles worked with Video South Medical Television in the year leading up to the opening of HYMS to design twin lecture rooms that would operate as a single lecture area and student group. "We had to overcome the fact that these locations are forty miles apart," comments Alistair Holdoway, Managing Director of Video South. "Our job was to link the two lecture rooms for video, graphics, audio and control in a way that would provide the same feel to lecturers and students, whether they are located in Hull or York for any particular lecture."
- The core of this installation is an AMX NetLinx control system operating across a private network between the sites. Video South programmed the operation of each lecture room as an identical mirror image of each other. The operation is presented on an AMX touch panel as a single functional unit when a session is instigated at either site. The audio visual (AV) links are provided by Tandberg 6000 codecs in each location, which provide a channel of video, a channel of XGA graphics and audio between sites.
- The AV systems in each lecture room are sophisticated and the delivery of images is controlled by a video matrix and an RGBHV matrix on each site. These are set up in "scenarios" by the AMX systems when the touch panel is in use. At each location the matrices can route local or distant images to projection and a choice of local images to codec transmission. The whole objective is to allow a lecturer to attend either site but treat the pair as a single location.
- When a session is started (say from York), all the AV and link up scenarios begin at a default and then follow sophisticated patterns. So, for instance, when the session is started, the codecs hook up automatically, the lights dim in Hull, the audience microphone from Hull is open, the audience camera in Hull shows a wide view and this is on screen in York. The screens in Hull show the presenter at the lectern in York and the audience in York. The "group" is established.
- The lecturer begins the session as soon as he touches any AV source button. At this time, the Hull audience view disappears in York (for the rest of the lecture) and the source (usually laptop or PC) is shown on screen in both Hull and York. Hull also has the lecturer on screen. The lights and sound levels work in synchronization throughout the lecture. The AMX system is constantly communicating across the network and not only switching video and XGA sources but setting up audio mixes on the twin digital Yamaha mixers and trimming light levels on the room dimmers.
- These adjustments and the camera operations are especially important in question/answer (Q&A) sessions. There is a selection on the 10-inch AMX color touch panel for Q&A. When it is selected, lighting changes to illuminate each audience, audience ceiling microphones are faded up, each audience is on screen to each other and the lecturer can accept a spontaneous question from either site. Each location has two audience cameras with presets to focus on a small section of audience. When the lecturer accepts a question "from Hull", he can touch a graphic on the panel related to the section of the audience in which the questioner is seated (he can see this on the wide shots) and the correct camera will be selected (automatically) and zoom in to that section in under 1.5 seconds, assuring natural, fast interaction. Elmo cameras with 20:1 zoom lenses and auto-focus perform this task. The system even has "workshop mode" in which each site can present material to each other along withQ&A.
- And when the lecture is over and the lecturer closes the session, the projectors turn off and the light level is set to full in both York and Hull and the codecs relax and disconnect – all from the push of a button. The lecture theatres provide all multi-media for the lecturer's use on a fixed large lectern. They can use networked PC, laptop, visualizer, DVD, VCR, aux video and aux RGB and each room has a presenter camera and two audience cameras. Additionally, each lecturer's console is equipped with four confidence screens. These show what is on the twin projection screens in York and Hull at all times and reminds lecturers what the remote site is seeing.
- When operating in "local mode" for lecturers without the link, the touch panel offers a dual projection mode. Very popular with academic medical staff, this mode allows any source to be shown from either projector. Many find that the ability to show PC on one screen and visualizer on video replay on the other is very useful.
- This system has many innovative features, but its claim to fame is that it is a required infrastructure. It solves a problem that arises from the very structure of this new medical school. It provides a teaching platform that is seen as critical to the success of the newest centre for medical teaching in UK.
