Case Study: AREC leads ERASMUS+ Hybrid Interactive Classrooms in Armenia.

Dear ADENA Partners, we start the year with a case study about a project implemented under the European Union’s ERASMUS+ eCAMPUS programme to equip four universities in Armenia. These are Yerevan State University (YSU), Yerevan State Medical University (YSMU), Armenian State Pedagogical University (ASPU), and Northern University (NU). Our partner, Firm Alpha, equipped eight hybrid interactive learning classrooms with AREC, AVer, and Newline solutions. Read how this improved the learning and teaching experiences of students and lecturers in the story below.

The initiator and official coordinator of the project was Yerevan State University (YSU). Founded in 1920, this largest university in Armenia is the country’s oldest higher education institution and is rightfully regarded as the most prestigious university in the country. According to various international rankings, the university consistently ranks among the world’s top 1,000 universities.

As part of the ERASMUS+ eCAMPUS programme, aimed at improving the quality of education through digitalisation, Yerevan State University initiated a project to create modern hybrid learning spaces. The project involved the establishment of eight new interactive classrooms across four universities in the country, all equipped with a unified set of audiovisual solutions, including systems for automatic speaker tracking, event recording and live online streaming, as well as tools for unified communications and information visualisation.

LS-110 Media Station

At the core of the installed solution are the AREC LS-110 Media Stations. These are compact, two-channel recording and streaming devices designed with end-user convenience and ease of use in mind. Media Stations are designed to capture a wide range of AV devices, including standard and network cameras, computers, encoders and decoders, and many more. Media Stations can simultaneously mix and record these sources together and separately, and stream them to platforms such as YouTube in a customisable video layout with additional overlay and background graphics. All recorded videos are saved on the Media Stations’ primary storage, which can be the internal drive, a connected external drive, or a NAS.

What makes Media Stations particularly advantageous for end users is that they can be easily automated. This fact played a very important role in their selection for this project, as the university wanted the smart classrooms to be as simple to operate as possible, requiring minimal to no input from the user. In terms of automation, Media Stations can start and stop recording and streaming based on events in connected .ics calendars, such as Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. Similarly, the stations can back up recorded content to Google Drive, FTP and SFTP servers, as well as Panopto, Kaltura, and Opencast. Media Stations can also clean up recordings on their primary drive and even insert bookmarks into videos, all by themselves. 

The other equipment used in YSU’s hybrid interactive classrooms is likewise automated and intuitive. For example, Media Stations use AVer CAM550 PTZ cameras and Newline Lyra Pro 98” interactive displays with built-in Windows OPS PCs as video sources. The AVer cameras automatically track active speakers thanks to integration with AVer Fone700 ceiling speakerphones, which are used as audio sources. The audio workflow is managed through Voicemeeter software, which runs on Newlines’ built-in PCs. The application functions like a DSP, routing videoconferencing audio from the remote side and local speakerphones to the Media Station for recording, and sending only the videoconferencing audio to the local speakers. Installed devices are fully compatible with all leading UC and videoconferencing systems, including Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Cisco Webex, and others.

The solution designed by Firm Alpha is already making students’ and teachers’ learning and teaching experiences easier. Is your company working on hybrid learning projects too? Contact us at www.a-dena.com to get a free consultation.