AV/IT TEAM: Eric Vetter, Campus Instructional Facility manager
GOALS: On the Urbana, Illinois campus of the University of Illinois, the Campus Instructional Facility (CIF) is a 124,000-square-foot building featuring innovative designs and the latest in classroom technologies to support active teaching and collaboration. Spanning five floors, the CIF offers capacity for over 2,400 students and features 23 flexible learning classrooms tailored for small group discussions, student engagement and peer-to-peer interaction.
The facility includes collaboration spaces on every floor as well as an in-the-round classroom designed to foster a more intimate setting for lectures. One of the key features of the building is the Monumental Study Steps, a two-story open study space for students to meet with groups or study individually. The centerpiece of the area is a large-scale LED video wall from Planar. Installed by AV designer and integrator C.V. Lloyde Audiovisual, the display is a massive 36-foot- wide, 14.5-foot-high (18x13) Planar TVF Series LED video wall with a 1.8mm pixel pitch (TVF1.8).
“The CIF is a very dynamic and unique space and the video wall at the Monumental Study Steps has contributed to the dynamic atmosphere of the building,” University of Illinois CIF manager Eric Vetter said.
CHALLENGES: The primary challenge of this project was selecting an eye-catching, versatile video wall solution for the Campus Instructional Facility that could both fulfill standard communications needs during the day, and serve as a vibrant canvas for evening and weekend programming.
Planar TVF Series LED video wall (TVF1.8)
FINAL INSTALL/USER BENEFITS: According to Vetter, the primary, day-to-day application of the Planar LED video wall is to serve as a digital message center for student communications including highlighting news and events taking place in the CIF and around campus. In the evenings and weekends, the video wall displays Fighting Illini and Big Ten sports in addition to other types of programming and special events.
The Monumental Study Steps functions as a hub for large events, and Vetter said the ability to use the Planar video wall as a backdrop presents a great advantage. Additionally, by routing classroom camera streams and content to the video wall, the space can be used to support class overflow. “We’ve also hosted end-of-semester class sessions in the Monumental Study Steps with students presenting projects on the video wall,” he said. “People can connect wirelessly and the display has multiple configurations. The Planar WallDirector user interface makes it easy to create a custom layout on the fly.”
The CIF is certified as LEED Platinum owing to several energy-efficient and sustainable designs. Among these is a geothermal exchange system, which lowers the energy demand to heat and cool the building. In the future, Vetter envisions incorporating a live energy dashboard on the video wall to display real-time data associated with the geothermal system.
“We continue to find new and unique ways to use the video wall,” Vetter said. “The size of the display combined with the crisp image brings a great ‘wow’ factor.”
