Established in 1911, TsingHua University in northwest Beijing has a combined student population of over 50,000, with 21 schools and 59 departments encompassing science, engineering, humanities, law, medicine, history, philosophy, economics, management, education, and art. The School of Economics & Management (SEM) was founded in 1984. When constructing a new academic building, the university turned to Dante to fulfill its extensive audio needs.
The teaching areas in the new building include 23 multimedia classrooms, 14 standard classrooms, and more than 40 seminar rooms. Approximately 700 Dante-supported devices were installed to support the school’s audio needs, making it the most extensive network-based audio system in mainland China.
“It was a prospective decision to choose to use the Dante Networking system in our new building,” said HongGang Zhao, head of Multimedia at TsingHua University’s School of Economics and Management. “It gives us lots of flexibility. As quick as a new idea comes, it will help us to make it happen.”
Dante is a complete AV-over-IP platform that allows audio, video, and control data to be transported over standard 1Gb Ethernet networks. Supported in over 3,800 Dante-enabled products from more than 550 manufacturers, Dante replaces point-to-point analog and digital connections with software-based IP routing, allowing users to send AV channels anywhere on the network with perfect digital fidelity.
The project team selected the Dante-enabled BSS BLU-806DA for audio processing throughout the building. The BSS DSP features a low latency, fault-tolerant digital audio bus of 256 channels and four card slots for custom I/O configurations of analog, digital, and telephony cards.
The team also selected Dante-enabled Shure ULX-D wireless microphones for larger classrooms to provide better audio coverage and consistent sound during lectures. Dante AVIO USB adapters were also included in the classrooms to allow students and instructors to connect any computer to a Dante network with zero software installation, which was ideal for remote instruction and conferences.
Device management and monitoring requirements were paramount, with approximately 700 Dante products on the network. Thus, the project team implemented Dante Domain Manager, a server-based software solution that provides a centralized view of the entire deployment. The software allows the team to divide the system into groups to manage broadcast traffic more efficiently on the computer network and improve maintenance efficiency. Through a centralized view, the team receives alerts when issues arise in the system. Then, they can access the system from anywhere, determine the problem, and solve it remotely.
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“Dante Domain Manager with its API has been straightforward for us to use,” said HongGang Zhao. “With the ability to see all the devices at once on the network, it’s easy to monitor and manage our systems. Sitting in the control room, we can identify the system issue remotely in advance, this allows us to work more efficiently and keep our classrooms operating smoothly.”
The school recognizes the importance of network multimedia technology in the future of smart classrooms in higher education. With the growing adoption of related technologies, such as the cloud, big data, and AI, the school hopes to seamlessly connect new technologies in the future to the Dante platform to expand teaching capabilities for staff and students alike.
