Systems integrator GVAV has delivered the complete AV integration across The Cavendish Building, home to the University of Derby’s International Business School. This flagship £75 million development is purpose-built to house the building, supporting lecture theatres, teaching rooms, meeting spaces, specialist facilities such as a trading floor, and digital signage throughout.
Designed to reflect the real-world business environments that graduates will encounter, teaching, collaboration and social spaces across the Cavendish Building were carefully curated to support real-world learning, creating an environment that encourages creativity and industry engagement.
Working in close partnership with the University, GVAV were appointed to deliver the complete AV integration across the building, supporting lecture theatres, teaching rooms, meeting spaces, specialist facilities such as a trading floor, and digital signage throughout.
From the outset, the AV was identified as integral to supporting the learning environment. The University’s priority was to ensure systems worked intuitively and remained largely unobtrusive, allowing staff and students to focus on learning and collaboration.
With this in mind, a core principle for the Cavendish Building was flexibility delivered through consistency. While spaces vary in size and purpose, the AV approach has been standardised to create a familiar user experience throughout the building. This allows staff and students to move confidently between spaces with minimal training or support.
Sustainability was also integral to the design process of the whole building. Display technology was considered to align with the University’s environmental objectives. Although projection was initially explored as an option, building constraints led to a strategic move towards LED technology, which is prominent throughout the new building. digiLED displays were selected not only for their visual clarity but also for their energy efficiency with the inclusion of digiLED’s Zeus technology. This allows the displays to be fully powered down when not in use, reducing energy consumption.
The Ashby Lecture Theatre is the Business School’s flagship auditorium, designed to deliver a high-impact, immersive experience for both in-room and hybrid audiences.
Visual delivery is led by a 6m-wide digiLED NANO COB LED wall controlled via digiLED ZUES and a Novastar processor, creating a bright, energy-efficient focal point for teaching content and guest presentations. With an ultra-fine pixel pitch, the NANO COB display supports detailed content and close viewing distances, making it well suited to lecture theatre environments whilst the chip-on-board construction provides a more durable LED surface ensuring long-term reliability.
Presenters are supported by a TOP-TEC height adjustable lectern as well as a 4K NEC confidence display and WolfVision visualiser for ultra-clear document sharing, while a Mersive Solstice pod enables effortless wireless collaboration.
The lecture theatre’s AV backbone is built on Crestron DM NVX, comprising of numerous encoders and decoders that provide efficient distribution and management of AV signals across different devices. NVX was chosen for its reliability, scalability and low latency, enabling the distribution of high-quality video and audio over the network. Day-to-day operation is simplified through Crestron touch panels, offering users front-end control of all AV components, whilst Gude PDUs ensure safe shutdown and resilient system management.
For capture, the lecture theatre benefits from a multi-camera approach with Panasonic AWUE40 PTZ cameras complemented by Crestron 1 Beyond PTZ cameras to track the speaker. These are supported by a voice-activated switching solution that enables the delivery of clean, presenter-focused shots for the benefit of those watching remotely.
Shure MXA ceiling array microphones and wireless MXW mics were chosen to capture clear, balanced audio across the large space. The audio system is reinforced through Biamp DSP-led column line loudspeakers and subwoofers to ensure consistent and even audio coverage throughout the lecture theatre. In addition, assisted listening is supported via Sennheiser MobileConnect, providing Wi-Fi based audio accessibility for those with hearing impairments.
On the second floor, a medium-capacity Harvard-style lecture theatre features a 3M wide NANO COB LED screen from digiLED and mirrors the main auditorium in terms of the AV set-up, providing a smaller space for flexible, hybrid teaching, whilst maintaining a consistent and familiar user experience.
Teaching spaces are delivered in line with the AV standard established across the Cavendish Building, creating a straightforward and intuitive experience that supports day-to-day teaching across a range of room sizes and layouts.
At the front of each teaching space, a Top-Tec Gemini lectern provides a dedicated hub for content delivery and AV control.
From here, presenters can manage the room’s visual displays and teaching technology using an integrated Crestron touch panel with familiar, intuitive GUI. Teaching staff can present from the in-room PC or connect their own devices via USB-C, with wireless presentation enabled through Crestron AirMedia Series 3. The Crestron AirMedia kit comprises of a dedicated receiver and connect adaptor, allowing laptops, tablets or mobile phones to share content over Wi-Fi without cables or additional hardware, helping to reduce setup time and support flexible, collaborative teaching.
Across the building’s suite of standard teaching rooms, visuals are delivered through a mix of digiLED walls and NEC large format displays, varied to suit specific room layouts and teaching requirements. Meanwhile, hybrid teaching is supported through integrated camera solutions including Huddly One and AVer PTZ tracking cameras. Each room includes Shure MXW wireless microphone options from the lectern, providing clear speech capture and flexibility. As in the building’s lecture theatres, accessibility is strengthened through Sennheiser MobileConnect assisted listening, helping ensure all students can engage with the content clearly.
The new Business School also includes a large divisible room designed to support a wide range of teaching styles and activities. The space can operate as a single large venue or be divided into smaller zones for workshops and collaborative sessions. NEC displays mounted on TOP-TEC Nova trolleys, finished with University of Derby branding, allow the layout to be reconfigured quickly while maintaining consistent AV performance and functionality across each configuration.
Meeting rooms
The building’s meeting rooms have also been equipped with a consistent, high-performance AV standard to support in-person and remote collaboration, as well as intuitive room management.
Across a range of room sizes, spaces are equipped with Sharp/NEC 4K displays and Microsoft Teams Room systems, allowing staff and students to connect effortlessly with on-site and remote participants. Control is handled via Crestron touch panels, while Jabra PanaCast 50 videobars deliver 180° camera coverage and audio capture. In-room participants can share content wirelessly from any device via Crestron AirMedia.
On the sixth floor, a boardroom supports high-level meetings and presentations. The room is equipped with dual 75-in Sharp/NEC 4K displays, ensuring flexible content sharing for hybrid collaboration. In line with the standardised AV approach across the building, control of the space is managed via Crestron touch panels, with a dedicated Microsoft Teams Rooms system supporting intuitive room booking and hybrid meetings.
Video capture is handled by the Huddly Crew camera system, an AI-driven multi-camera solution that enables intelligent, speaker-led camera switching for hybrid meetings. Audio reinforcement and speech capture are provided through an adjustable-width Extron sound bar and Shure MXA linear array microphones, ensuring clear, intelligible audio throughout the space.
Specialist teaching spaces and practical environments
The ground floor atrium forms the social heart of the Cavendish Building and is animated by a continuous digiLED stock ticker running through the space. Visible on entry to the building and across multiple levels, the display sets the tone for the learning environment.
On the first floor, a specialist trading room builds on this theme, providing an immersive, industry-grade learning environment. A digiLED HD MAX ticker display wraps the room, delivering live data visuals that mirror real-world trading floors, helping to support scenario-based teaching.
In keeping with the building's wider AV design, the trading room benefits from a familiar, intuitive Crestron interface, an NEC display for visual content, and audio delivered through compact Genelec speakers and Shure wireless microphones. Like in the building’s other teaching rooms, accessibility and inclusivity were embedded within the AV design with Sennheiser MobileConnect supporting assisted listening, while a Huddly ONE camera solution supports flexible delivery for hybrid or recorded sessions.
A dedicated podcast studio broadens the range of practical learning environments within the building, supporting high-quality audio production and digital content creation. Shure SM7dB microphones, mounted on articulated studio arms, deliver controlled vocal capture and effective background noise rejection. These are paired with a TASCAM Mixcast 4 content production station which acts as a central hub for mixing and recording multiple audio sources, providing students with an intuitive, hands-on interface that enables them to build confidence with podcasting and audio production workflows.
“We have worked with GVAV for many years and continue to value the quality of their work, their technical expertise, and their flexibility in meeting evolving project deadlines. These strengths were particularly evident throughout the development of the new Cavendish Building.
GVAV supported us through several design iterations and timeline adjustments to deliver state of the art audio visual facilities throughout the building.” Debs Spendlove, senior AV engineer, University of Derby.
By ensuring the AV across these spaces is intuitive and unobtrusive, students can focus on applying theory in realistic scenarios, helping them to build the skills and confidence needed for careers in business-related industries.
Digital signage and shared spaces
Digital signage is deployed throughout the Cavendish Building to support wayfinding, communications and information sharing. Crestron room booking panels are positioned outside teaching rooms, lecture theatres and meeting spaces, providing clear visibility of room availability and scheduling at a glance, helping staff and students navigate the building with ease.
Sharp/NEC 55-in 4K displays are installed across circulation areas and shared spaces with content managed centrally through a Tripleplay digital signage system, allowing the University to update messaging quickly and consistently across the building.
