Critical components and technologies that make these technology rooms function include:
 

• Crestron control systems - a touchpanel based system that "drives" or controls all the equipment in the classroom.  Using a touchpanel allows us to create an standard interface across campus, even though the brands and type of equipment vary greatly from room to room.  A control system also minimizes the steps required to use the equipment, taking an action that might require multiple button presses on several remote controls and accomplishing the same thing with the touch of a single touchpanel button.  Crestron is one manufacturer of these systems and is the brand we have standardized on across campus.

• Roomview - a monitoring application designed by Crestron that also gives remote control of classrooms and all the installed A/V equipment in those rooms.  With Roomview we are able to monitor LCD projector lamp life and troubleshoot problems remotely, sometimes even before anyone notices something is not working. View a screenshot of our Roomview implementation.

• LCD projectors - Projectors that can project both computer display signals and video images are the heart of the display world.  Rapidly evolving tehnology has allowed us to greatly improve the quality and brightness of images projected in each room.  Liquid Crystal Display technology is being challenged by Digital Light Projection, a projection technique that uses little mirrors about the size of a pinhead on a postage stamp sized frame...amazing!

• Visual Presenters - Basically a camera mounted above a platform, Visual Presenters are the successor to the bulky opaque projector.  Used for displaying 3D objects on the projection screen, Visual Presenters are handy "show and tell" devices for displaying books, images, pictures, molecular models, manicures, and any number of items.  Newer models have higher resolution capabilities, and produce sharper images. 

• DVD player - DVDs have been the most rapidly adopted format ever in the US, and have overtaken VHS tapes in terms of the format new programs are sold on.  A DVD disc provides significantly better picture and sound quality than a VHS tape.

• VHS player - Still a really useful technology VHS is a standard that is seeing its time come to an end.  However, with the large libraries of content still available in this format and the ability to record long programs, we anticipate VHS decks being a fixture in our classrooms for many years to come.

• Networked Computer - Provides access to a world of resources, GC supplied classroom computers are templated with the software that faculty request so that each room has the same software available.  Typical applications include Powerpoint, streaming media playback, or software instruction.