System integrators Universal AV were appointed to collaborate on the redevelopment of the Stephenson Building at Newcastle University.
The Stephenson Building has been a part of Newcastle University’s city campus for 70 years, has recently undergone an exciting redevelopment to transform the building into a collaborative educational space.
The brief was to centralise the engineering school, which was originally split across several buildings on campus, bringing all arms together in a collaborative and inclusive educational space.
Newcastle University has a strong history with Sharp/NEC so the standard teaching rooms were fitted with the latest products from NEC, however, the university sought advice from AV integrators on how best to deal with the new teaching space - a collaborative lecture theatre called The Round.
To install The Round, Universal AV worked closely with the architects, building contractors and the university AV team. The space was created by positioning eight projectors on a rig, christened the ‘doughnut’, suspended by projector ceiling lifts, and eight four-metre wrap-around screens used for projection. Controls were placed both in the centre of the room and next to the door, allowing for teaching to be carried out from two different positions.
Universal AV also fitted a traditional design lecture theatre, three computer clusters (able to accommodate up to 120 students each) and meeting rooms with capacities varying from six to thirty people, within the building.