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AV Technology recently sat down with Steve Bogart, business development for Education in North America at Atlona, to discuss classroom technology trends and how the company addresses those needs. Atlona has a presence in and serves the similar but different AV technology needs of K-12 and those of higher education.
K-12 Trend
Classroom AV and PA systems around the school are often not integrated. "The core of the K-12 classroom is the interactive display, but there is a separate audio system for emergency notifications," Bogart said. This kind of integration is an area of focus at Atlona. "For instance, it's a problem if the program audio in a classroom is playing while a separate system announces a critical message. If the audio for that video program doesn't mute, the message could be missed. We have developed a system where we monitor the paging system to mute in-room audio to ensure critical messages are heard." This integrates the emergency notification system into the AV system.
Bogart noted that technologies in K-12 classrooms tend to run as disparate systems. "There could be an emergency notification system and a lock system, but there hasn't been any real integration of those into classroom audio technologies."
Higher Ed Trend
During the past decade, there has been a growing trend for AV departments to take on more programming of AV systems. "There has been a push where institutions are becoming more self-reliant," Bogart said. "They can't call an integrator and do a truck roll to send a technician out to make minor changes. The Atlona Velocity AV control system is meant to be edited in real-time and much easier to develop a program than traditional systems." This doesn't replace the relationship with an integrator. "Integrators will often provide installation services, but we're finding a lot of institutions have staff that are doing some of the installations of smaller systems," Bogart added. "If it's a whole new building, usually there's a consultant, drawings involved, and much more integrator involvement. We have no intention of ever selling directly or having a direct agreement with an end user."
Making It Easy—for Everyone
During the past few years, teachers and instructors learned to embrace classroom technologies, but ease of use became a rallying cry. "We're finding institutions are becoming less brand-loyal and more technology-specific," Bogart said. What is most important is that the interface is familiar from room to room. "An instructor doesn't know what glass they're touching, and they don't care, they just want to know that they can hit the "system on" button, and it will turn on.
Atlona recently started shipping its new VKP-8E Velocity 8 button keypad controller. Do we need another keypad on the market, you say? Yes! Bogart shared, "The big difference with this keypad that I hadn't seen in the industry is the unique flexibility during provisioning. An integrator can set it up and invite the end user to the configuration. Maybe they just have view rights, or maybe they have full admin rights. Then, once the project is done, they can transfer ownership over."
The VKP-8E Velocity 8-button keypad controller is a cloud-based solution but doesn't have to be deployed in the cloud. "If the institution doesn't want to leave it cloud-based, you can just put it in local mode, and it runs locally," Bogart said. The cloud gives it a lot of flexibility and a lot of power either as a standalone control system or integrated into a full Velocity system."
Atlona Supports
In support of its channel integrators, Bogart said, "We offer free training certification for integrators and end users on Atlona products."
Bogart has quickly become a highly regarded thought leader in the ed tech world and recently began a series of EdTech Talks. Check out the first one, Multicast for the AV Professional in Education.
Check out Atlona's Education Technology VIP Program, built to serve AV and IT professionals in the K-12 and higher education communities. The qualification process is easy; just complete the online form.
What about support when you need an extra hand? "An end user can call into our support line just like an integrator can," said Bogart. The hours are Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. PST, and weekend appointments are available.
Atlona, a Panduit company, is a leading manufacturer of AV distribution, AV over IP, collaboration, and control solutions. Our core brand vision is to improve technology for the sharing of ideas, through innovative AV products used every day in a wide variety of commercial and educational applications. Atlona prioritizes quality, user experience, simplicity, and management in every product we develop. More information about Atlona is available at atlona.com
