Southern Cross Uni’s experience with an impressive (but hungry) LG video wall.
Story: Christopher Holder
It’s called the Hungry Beast. Which might sound as ominous as it does ravenous. But for Kate Kelly (director of Library Services) and David Duverge (Senior AV Client Support), the moniker is an affectionate statement of fact.
Southern Cross Uni’s Learning Centre at the Lismore Campus has been living with the Hungry Beast for a few years now. Initially the university christened the installation with the commission of an 18-minute professionally-shot hero video which represented the areas natural beauty and regional character.
It was (and is) a beautiful thing.
However, within a week, after seeing the video presentation cycle through dozens of times, Kate and David knew the video wall content would need to be updated to remain fresh, and not just monthly or weekly, but constantly. For students making their daily 9am walk through the building’s thoroughfare it would need to display something different every time. It had to. The alternative would be repetition… repetition would result in indifference; indifference would mean irrelevance; and there’s nothing more damaging to a university’s reputation than irrelevance.
SCU’s response to its Hungry Beast has been impressive. Rather than putting the video wall into a ‘problem child’, too-hard basket, it has sought ways to leverage the display’s position and unusual dimensions to inform and inspire.
Rather than allowing the video wall to slip into infinite-loop irrelevance it has done quite the
opposite. The impressive installation has become a focal point, worthy of the bustling position
it occupies.
“It’s not a marketing tool for the uni,” reinforces Kate Kelly. “It’s all about the students and staff, reflecting who we are.”
EXOTIC DIET
The video wall may be a Hungry Beast, but its diet is frustratingly exotic. The 2×8 portrait-oriented configuration with its 8000+ pixels in height fits the stairwell space beautifully but it’s hardly a canvas conducive to off-the-peg media — everything that appears on the video wall is either especially commissioned or manipulated by the uni’s media team led by Jeremy Austin.
The media team uses Adobe Creative Suite tools to edit and manipulate the footage to best exploit the screen real estate. Sometimes the content will be generated by on-campus multimedia artists, at other times the video wall will be used to visualise important SCU research — shark behaviour or flood mitigation, for example; and, again, at other times it’s used to make a visual link with a library exhibition.
”Southern Cross University conducts a lot of research project,” explains Kate Kelly. Much of that research around Australia is trapped behind firewalls — in journal articles or data servers people can’t easily access.
“We endeavour to show that research in a visual way — data visualisation — unlocking a treasure trove of data and analytics for students, staff and the community.”
NEVER BORING
Regardless of what’s displayed, the content is relevant and demands a response. Kate Kelly tells this story of when the video wall played a part in Bird Week: “We had one of our academics in the Education Faculty contribute bird images that tied in with Bird Week. A member of our Music Department was so impressed with the images that they were inspired to compose a bird sound symphony which we added to the presentation. The English Language School was so impressed by the package that they set curriculum incorporating it.”
This virtuous sequence of events has the video wall at its nexus, linking and inspiring. It demonstrates that a video wall in a high traffic area, with thoughtfully updated content, has the power to truly influence. Academics’ perspectives are altered, students’ eyes are opened, and the community is engaged.
“We want the Learning Centre to be a ‘sticky space’. Studies show that student retention is increased when you give students a compelling reason to come to campus. Once they come, the very often stay, and when they stay they make connections and more likely to complete their studies. It’s about making campus an engaged, exciting fun place to be.”
The Hungry Beast is doing its bit. Every time you glance up you see something different. Every time you glance up you’re reminded that SCU is a place that’s exciting and relevant… a place you’d rather be.
VIDEO WALL DETAILS
The video wall is comprised of 16 x LG hi-def 55-inch narrow bezel commercial displays. Normally a video wall of this size would have a video wall processor driving it, that could address the wall as a whole, taking care of the processing that goes with that. In this case, each screen has a Brightsign media player behind it. It’s a solution that gets you there but does take the media team more preparation time to achieve the desired result. Brightsign’s BrightWall software is designed to assist in this regard but SCU needed the scheduling capabilities.
There are an additional eight Brightsign players behind eight other signage displays in the library that take care of wayfinding and information.
“The screens provide plenty of ‘wow’ factor,” noted David Duverge (SCU Senior Client Support, Audio Visual & Conference Services). “The LG ‘bezel-less’ panels in the video wall were stunning when we installed them and they remain great years later.”
David is working on a 6 x 3 video wall in SCU’s Gold Coast campus. This time around he is spec’ing a (Matrox from PanoTek) video wall processor, but he’ll ‘stick ’n’ stay’ with LG commercial displays and Brightsign players for the digital signage. Another Hungry Beast, and another story, no doubt.
Midwich (Brightsign): 1300 666 099 or midwich.com.au