As a new-build school, Aureus Secondary School had the opportunity to design their building around the technology they wanted right from the beginning. To inspire their pupils, they chose to include a video wall as an awe-inspiring centrepiece for their assembly hall.
Aureus Secondary School is a brand new, state of the art comprehensive 11-16 school that serves the newly created Great Western park area of Didcot, Oxfordshire, UK. It was created as part of the new town, which will include as many as 3,300 new homes in the next few years.
As a new school, Aureus was perfectly placed to be more creative with its building infrastructure than would be possible in an older building. For its assembly hall, the school’s intention was to create an awe-inspiring centrepiece that could not only attract the attention of their students, but deliver content to the them in a way that's both modern and engaging.
Aureus turned to leading AV for education specialist, and Sharp partner, Elementary Technology, to help them define what they needed. They worked closely together, turning the initial idea into a working solution, helping the school through the process of choosing the right hardware and software for their needs. The same applied to other audio visual technology throughout the school, such as digital signage, interactive touchscreens and more.
“There is more freedom when installing a video wall into a new school, from a size and accessibility point of view,” explained Ed Fairfield, Senior Marketing Manager at Elementary Technology.
“Aureus Secondary School wanted a complete audio visual solution, and for the displays they decided on the Sharp PNV600A for its clarity and thin bezels. We created the video wall using nine displays, each with a screen size of 60-inches. The final video wall size is an impressive 4 metres wide by 2.2 metres tall.”
Indeed, with the Sharp PNV600A’s 6.5mm bezel between active areas, the whole active area once assembled together looks almost seamless, which is ideal when presenting to an audience and when you want an uninterrupted learning experience.
The LCD-monitor has enhanced contrast ratio controls, making it ideal for multi-screen configurations. What’s more, Mirror Frame technology minimises the lines between the slim-bezel panels by reflecting mirror images from the display content. This creates a more dynamic video wall and an even smoother big-picture.
The school is predominantly using the video wall for two purposes. First and foremost, the video wall is being used for school assemblies, so, the children will sit in front of it as a teacher presents something on screen that’s school related.
Additionally, they’re allowing the local community to use it, and organisations have even used the school hall and video wall for conferences. It means there is a revenue stream potential too.
This is the largest video wall Elementary Technology has installed. After the site survey and any prep work was completed, it took two days to complete this bespoke project, paying strict attention to the requirements from the school, who are extremely happy with the result.
Paul Wright, Computer Science Leader at Aureus Secondary School, said that the: "Assemblies that we are able to put on in the school are hugely immersive, because of the video wall. As soon as a child comes in, they are taken by that wall and their attention is focused on what's going on. It's a really impressive way of immersing a child into an assembly."
Hannah Wilson, Headteacher, at Aureus Secondary School concurs: "[The] video wall in the main hall is phenomenal. The engagement it brings with the imagery and videography, we can use in assemblies, that for me is a beautiful centrepiece."
And it's easy to see why; the screen is impressive, as this video by Elementary Technology shows.
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