Olds College Upgrades the Learning Experience with Sony

Introduction

Olds College of Agriculture & Technology is giving students a new perspective on animal health and agricultural programs with a combination of Sony professional displays, pan-tilt-zoom cameras, and laser projectors. The Sony technology is deployed across two facilities, providing a more immersive education for students and faculty, and enabling new teaching and learning capabilities.

The Challenge

The new Sony AV and technology systems were installed to provide a more interactive and collaborative learning environment for students, supporting classrooms with connectivity for remote participation and presentation options; specialized treatment rooms with cameras and displays to allow more students to observe procedures, and increased student capacity.

The Solution

The College’s Animal Health Education Centre is a newly built facility with Sony Pro BRAVIA BZ30L displays, SRG-X400 4K NDI cameras, and VPL-FHZ80 Projectors installed in classrooms and labs for remote viewing and recording of surgical procedures and lectures for its Animal Health Program.

In the Werklund Agriculture and Technology Centre, a completely renovated building, the Sony displays and projectors support classroom presentations and collaborative discussions. Additional displays are used for break-out meeting rooms and digital signage throughout the building.

A dozen projectors are installed across both buildings, with more than 20 displays in 70- and 75-inch sizes and 10 cameras.

The new Animal Health Education Centre (AHEC), which officially opened its doors in September 2024, houses specialized rooms for animal treatment and student learning, and classrooms with network connectivity for remote participation and more flexible presentation options. Complementing the new facility expansion is an animal hospital with surgical, dental, and radiology suites, plus diagnostic labs and an animal housing space.

Olds College worked with Applied Electronics LTD to complete the project successfully. The integrator delivered high-quality results on time and in line with the school’s expectations, and their expertise and attention to detail ensured that all project goals were met efficiently, demonstrating their commitment to excellence and client satisfaction.

The Results

“We’re capable of doing so much more now,” said Joe Guenther, IT Director at Olds College, “in terms of classroom presentation, viewing flexibility, network connectivity  and interactive collaboration.”

The Centre is capturing HD footage for use in future course materials and to provide better access for students during procedures. The cameras and displays combine to create “viewing gallery” areas, allowing more students to observe procedures. “Why have dozens of students crowd around a surgery table when they can view live images and audio on a large, beautiful TV just outside the room,” he said.

Each AHEC room is configured for maximum viewing and content-sharing options. “Having these cameras opens up the possibility to put any signal on any screen in any classroom,” said Danny Belanger, IT team at Olds College. “We now have the capabilities to record on every single camera and then save to a shared drive which authorized users can access. That wasn’t possible before.”

Since the entire AHEC installation is AV over IP, the technology is also used during student open-house tours. “We can show a live demonstration of medical procedures from the animal hospital in a classroom in another part of the building,” Guenther said. “Every device connects into our network switches, every source comes into the network, and every destination comes out of the network.”

The cameras’ security features allow easy control over privacy and user access. “We don’t give camera access to everyone,” Belanger said. “Once someone is done with a procedure, we assign a preset, which keeps it private. We route the cameras to whoever needs to see them, as long as they have proper authorization.”

The AHEC classrooms and labs all have one Sony SRG-X400 camera with varying combinations of Sony Pro BRAVIA displays and projectors, all connected via the school’s NDI network. The largest space is the diagnostic lab with four 75-inch TVs. Instructors simply plug in their laptop at the podium and content is displayed on all four screens.

“Even if students are facing the back of the room and looking at their microscopes, they can still clearly see what the teacher is presenting on the projection screen and the TVs all around the room,” Belanger said. “The camera in the ceiling can focus on anything on the instruction table, and everything is tracked smoothly.”

Conclusion

In the few months since the Sony technology has been operational, the Olds College instructors have fully embraced its use and benefits.  “When we started this project, some couldn’t quite wrap their head around what this was going to be,” Guenther said. “Once they started using it, then the questions came up in terms of how do we use this, how do we do that? You could see ideas bubbling to the surface.”

In addition to enhanced active learning, the technology’s benefits extend far beyond the classroom walls. The College now has a clear competitive advantage for attracting new students and experienced faculty, who both have heightened expectations for high-quality, easy-to-use technology in education.

“The new facilities and the year-round instructional design allow for increased student enrolment without diminishing the quality of hands-on learning, expanding the capacity of our Animal Health Programs from 90 students annually to 120 for the 2024-25 year, and to 150 in 2025-26,” said Dalin Bullock, Interim Vice President, Academic. “We are supporting a comprehensive learning experience and further enhancing our students’ practical skills and career readiness.”