Faculty of Management at University of Warsaw enhances lectures with Sony display solutions
Sony professional displays and laser projectors play central role in hybrid teaching and learning solution at Poland’s most prestigious management school.
- Faculty of Management needed to accommodate students’ expectations for flexible remote and in-person learning
- 85-inch and 65-inch BRAVIA BZ40H Professional Displays
- VPL-PHZ50 3LCD laser projectors
- Students enjoy clear, detail-packed view of lecturers’ presentation materials, with high brightness and contrast
Students have become accustomed to being able to choose their form of participating in classes. Thus we faced the challenge of providing facilities that would meet these expectations.
Dr Tomasz Ludwicki
Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw
Meeting student demands for excellence in education
Established in 1972, The Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw (UW) is the oldest management school in Central and Eastern Europe. It offers the highest international standards of education, confirmed by its prestigious AACSB, AMBA, and EQUIS accreditations that are awarded to leading business schools worldwide.
The faculty is constantly upgrading its infrastructure to meet the expectations of students, as well as ensuring that it continues to meet international accreditation standards. In response to the demands of its MBA students, the faculty has recently implemented a videoconferencing-based hybrid teaching solution. Implemented in five lecture halls and teaching spaces on campus, the flexible solution allows real-time interaction between teaching staff and students attending classes in person or remotely.
Enhancing hybrid teaching and learning
“MBA students have become accustomed to being able to choose their form of participating in classes” comments Dr Tomasz Ludwicki, Director of the International Management Centre, Faculty of Management at the University of Warsaw. “Thus we faced the challenge of providing facilities that would meet these expectations. We now have five rooms whose infrastructure has been designed with hybrid learning in mind. The self-service potential of this solution is of key importance: our concept was that a lecturer could simply plug in a HDMI or USB-C cable and start the class at a click of a button”.
The hybrid teaching solution delivered by specialist integrator Damovo allows 4K video and digital audio to be routed flexibly wherever they’re needed via the faculty’s standard 1Gb network. As lecturers write and highlight content, it’s transmitted simultaneously to screens in each room and to videoconferencing software for viewing and interaction by remote participants. At the end of each lecture content can be saved and shared with students for further study.
Every detail seen from all angles
Each capable of seating up to 40 students, three lecture theatres feature large 85-inch Sony BRAVIA 4K Professional Displays, complemented by room cameras and microphones that capture images and sound as lecturers present. As Dr Ludwicki notes, the layout of the rooms made it crucial to choose the right display solution offering wide viewing angles, with screens positioned to ensure that all students attending in person can comfortably follow content being presented by the lecturer. Meanwhile two workshop rooms – seating 40 and 35 students respectively – also feature VPL-PHZ50 Sony laser projectors to display lecture materials.
Complementing the large 85-inch BRAVIA screens, nine further 65-inch BZ40H series 4K Professional Displays have been installed in the faculty’s lecture halls. The displays’ Full Array LED backlighting system that can boost peak light intensity in brightest parts of the image to 850 cd/m², assisted by Sony’s power-packed X1 processor that enhances contrast and clarity while assuring compatibility with HDR (High Dynamic Range) content. Even lower-resolution content is boosted to near 4K quality by Sony’s 4K X-Reality PRO technology.
Impeccable image quality, minimal maintenance
The Faculty of Management’s choice of slim, compact Sony VPL-PHZ50 3LCD laser projectors meanwhile assures superb image quality with high 5,000 lumen brightness plus excellent reliability and installation flexibility. The projector’s long-lasting laser engine also offers the benefit of near-instant start-up, together with consistent image quality and brightness for several thousand hours of operation without maintenance.
“Our aim was to enable the University to conduct hybrid classes to the best possible standard” confirms Pawel Gladkowski of integrator Damovo who realised the project for the Faculty of Management at UW. “It was very important to guarantee the highest quality images and sound, because this translates directly into more comfortable, rewarding study for students. We believe we’ve risen to the challenge!”
