Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/255556
E d Te c h S h o w D a i l y Fri d a y, Fe b ru a r y 7 , 2 0 1 4 8 EZROOM: EASY-TO-USE, TAMPER- FREE, INTUITIVE AV CONTROL By Stephanie Seufert, Marketing Manager, FrontRow FrontRow's ezRooms can have all the audio and control gear above the ceiling or embedded in attractive wallplates. No messy wires to trip over, no speakers to knock over, no knobs accessible to curi- ous students' fingers. The key to more vibrant learning is the system that barely gets noticed: FrontRow ezRoom. This is the technology that makes all the other technology in a classroom more useable and effective. Yet, the system itself is practically invisible to teachers and stu- dents. Projectors. Interactive whiteboards. Apple TV. Document cameras. PCs. FrontRow ezRoom integrates multiple A/V sources and gives the teacher a sin- gle point of control. No more fumbling around in front of students. No steep learning curve. Your teachers can use what they want when they want it to con- nect with students in media- rich, interactive learning environments. Furthermore, the FrontRow ezRoom now offers the Teacher Edition mobile app for iOS, bring- ing AV control and manage- ment into the hands of teachers via their iPad or iPhones. FrontRow's HDMI solution is based off of HDBaseT technology which offers the greatest compatibility of any HDMI extender, using POE, driving HDMI extension up to 230 feet or 70 meters. For technical directors, remote diag- nostics makes regular mainte- nance and troubleshooting fast and easy. From knowing when a projector bulb needs to be replaced to being able to respond quickly to a teacher with questions, ezRoom pro- vides fast access to answers. A technical director can see the entire campus system and indi- vidual classrooms from any net- worked browser. Learn more at booth 1229. For more information, visit www.masterav.com, call 800-256-2754 or email cliffsmall wood@masterav.com. INDIAN RIVER TRANSFORMS LEARNING WITH EXTRON The Indian River School District in Florida serves over 18,000 students in 27 schools. District officials recently sought a way to integrate their existing class- room AV technology to make it easier to use and support. The solution: Extron PoleVault and VoiceLift Systems. Main Objectives The district began by outfitting their classrooms with projectors and voice amplification systems. However, the original components were not integrated well, which made training difficult and left teachers a little uncertain about using the technology. In addition, the district wanted to replace their overhead projec- tors with document cameras, improve audio in the classroom and securely mount the equipment to prevent tamper- ing and theft. On top of everything else, the technology had to be both teacher and student friendly. "Our objective was to transform the way teaching and learning was happen- ing in the classroom," said Bruce Green, Executive Director of Instructional and Information Technology for Indian River County Schools. "We knew we needed a big screen for maximum visibility, and voice amplification so the students could hear clearly." School officials received a grant for one complete system through the Extron Classroom AV Grant Program. This enabled teachers and students to experi- ence the new technology firsthand, and to explore ways in which the AV technolo- gy might enhance learning in the class- room. After reviewing various companies and technologies, the district selected the Extron PoleVault System with VoiceLift Microphone for the classrooms. The PoleVault System integrates all of the AV components, and features an easy-to-use wall-mounted control interface. "Once teachers found out how easy the Extron AV system was to operate, it became an essential com- ponent for classroom instruction," said Green. "We were also were impressed with Extron's support structure and that their vision regarding tech- nology matched our own." Integrated Classroom Audio One unique issue faced by the district was the need to integrate with an assistive listening system, or ALS, in certain class- rooms. With the existing system, the teacher wore a microphone and transmit- ter that was compatible with the receiver built into student hearing aids. Teachers and district officials knew it would be cumbersome for the teacher to wear the VoiceLift Microphone and the ALS microphone/transmitter togeth- er. Fortunately, the PoleVault System could be configured to support VoiceLift and ALS functionality from a single microphone. "The Extron system completely inte- grated the teacher's voice and program audio with our assistive listening system, which benefits all students," said Mary Grace Hektner, Speech Language Pathologist at Indian River Schools. A Strong Partnership The district started installing Extron equip- ment six years ago, and has been upgrading class- rooms with the systems ever since. At present, there are over 900 classrooms that benefit from the advanced classroom AV technology. The district's typical classroom includes a ceiling mounted LCD projector, teacher computer, document camera, PoleVault System and VoiceLift Microphone. According to Green, "It's not sufficient to simply have the technology installed in classrooms; they need to be integrated, and the Extron systems helped us achieve that goal." Visit Extron at booth 533, or go online at www.extronclassroom.com. TOOLS4EVER STREAMLINES SCHOOL DISTRICT'S USER-ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT Case Study: Judson ISD Summary Judson Independent School District is located in San Antonio, Texas. The public school district covers nearly 56 square miles and serves the cities of Converse, Kirby and Selma, as well as portions of Live Oak, Universal City and San Antonio. Like nearly every other school district in the U.S., Judson is suffering from increased financial pressure. Steve Young, Judson's Chief Technology Officer, said, "Because of tight funding, we're unlikely to gear up staff-wise. But on the other hand, we're still adding more schools and more stu- dents, and pressure for system support is also on the rise. Each year we see more systems that need to be brought online, which means more users and administrators. That means we're expected to do things cleaner, leaner and more efficiently. That also counts for user administration." Keeping Systems Connected The Active Directory, SIS (eSchoolPlus) and the ERP system comprise the core of Judson's network. All of these sys- tems are interconnected and require users/data to be synchronized. However, Judson didn't have a way to automate synchronization of identities between systems. The lack of automation in this complex network resulted in user errors and added a substantial amount of man hours for maintenance tasks such as adding and removing users and creating file shares. To make student-account management more accurate and effi- cient, Judson decided to implement User Management Resource Administrator (UMRA) by Tools4ever. "When we started looking for soft- ware to automate these administration tasks, we talked to several vendors," said Young. "Most of the products we investi- gated were too complex or completely out of our price range. We needed a sim- ple, high-quality, affordable solution with the right service. We found all that in UMRA." With UMRA, student information is now automatically synchronized between systems. When a new student account is entered into the SIS system, UMRA detects it and automati- cally creates an account in the interconnected systems. Stabilizing Labor Costs According to Young, the benefits gained from implementing this project are clear. While the workload of the back office is increasing, UMRA keeps account maintenance man hours from growing in tandem. Additionally, the IT department is now able to redirect resources and take on tasks that previ- ously would have gone by the wayside. For users, UMRA now creates accounts immediately, meaning they get online faster. A new student coming into the district will have access to the network and home directories the very next day. "We've never had this kind of speed before," Young explained. "It usually took maybe a week before students had an account." Increasing Security Tools4ever's solution ensures accounts are immediately de-provisioned so users can't gain unauthorized access to the net- work. "Security isn't something you can quantify," Young said, "but it is something you know you should put money into. It's a way to ensure users can't access the things they shouldn't. Thanks to UMRA, we're able to be proactive on security by quickly disabling accounts." Enable Full Provisioning In the final phases of deployment, Judson will also be using UMRA to manage its staff accounts. Judson's staff needs immediate access to their accounts; pro- viding staff members with readily avail- able user accounts will reap huge benefits for the district. In a final component of the project, Tools4ever will be installing a Live@edu connector to manage e-mail related entities. "Tools4ever really knows what they are talking about," Young said. "They have a deep understanding of the problems we face trying to manage identities, users and data, and they offer the right service and support behind the products." For more information about UMRA, visit www.tools4ever.com or visit booth 2427.