University Business - February 2007 - (Page 54)

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Yet, it’s vital to push forward in a strategic way by making smart technology purchases. A/V procurement can be a tricky, expensive process that requires careful planning. Done right, universities can gain state-of-the-art classrooms that allow professors to more easily engage and educate students. Done wrong, a failed A/V project can easily cost a university millions of dollars in wasted time and money. Here’s how to get it right. Finding Screen Gems Consider the typical new building groundbreaking. Much like with bricks and mortar, it’s not unusual for an A/V build-out to require three to four years from inception to deployment. “Many A/V systems coming online today were designed and contracted a year or more ago,” says Timothy Cape, principal consultant at Technitect, a Georgia-based A/V consulting company. “Generally speaking, the higher education sector has a slower delivery and deployment cycle than the consumer sector. In some cases, you run the risk of building a digital classroom that’s antiquated the day it’s completed.” With these high stakes in mind, advice on A/V procurement strategies varies greatly. Mike Dunn, president and CEO of PolyVision, suggests that administrators observe how faculty members currently use A/V equipment to get a feel for what features are most important for future purchases. Breaking with conventional wisdom, Dunn says administrators should avoid the temptation to simply survey staff members about their future A/V needs. The reason: Many faculty members simply don’t know what they want. Such is the case at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “Getting feedback and direction from faculty is like herding cats,” says John Gilliam, a classroom support specialist. “A lot of times we’ll test an A/V technology in a classroom and look to get a bit of feedback. But lately we’ve done a pretty good job watching industry trends and using our own A/V expertise to decide what needs to be deployed—rather than polling the faculty.” That’s the right approach, according to Cape. “The faculty and the actual end users shouldn’t necessarily be driving equipment selection,” he says. “But they should be involved in needs analysis.” The needs analysis should include an independent integrator or consultant who isn’t tied to any single vendor’s IT equipment, he adds. Classrooms at Emory College Ga. have standardized A/V equipment. ware companies jumped into the market, and there was no standardized way to gather and listen to music on portable devices. Most early users craved an intuitive music player with internet connectivity, but they couldn’t fully describe how the device would look, feel, and function. Polling early adopters for direction would likely have been a pointless exercise. Enter Apple Computer and its penchant for developing hardware and software in near secrecy. “If you had surveyed Apple’s Macintosh customers five years ago, few would have envisioned the iPod and its scrolling wheel interface,” says Ed Golod, president of Revenue Accelerators, a New York-based technology consulting firm. “Apple never asked users what they wanted. Instead, they watched the market trends, developed the iPod in secret, and launched a digital music revolution that will ultimately become a mobile video revolution.” Much in the way that Apple studied digital music adoption rates, federal and state education agencies are starting to look at rates of A/V adoption and general technology adoption, notes Dunn. They want to determine which technologies, and integration methods and standards, are actually used by the greatest number of schools. Then, universities should begin to react with new A/V technology procurement strategies and standards. Lessons from Apple Failing to solicit faculty feedback may sound like heresy, but numerous technology trends back up Gilliam’s and Dunn’s reasoning. Take, for instance, the digital music market. In 2001, digital music devices and MP3 players were gaining popularity but the market for such devices was highly fragmented. Dozens of aspiring hard54 | February 2007 Sticking with Standards This growing commitment to IT standards is undeniable. Consider the situation at Emory College in Atlanta, which spent $3.7 million over a five-year period equipping 90 classrooms and teaching spaces with A/V equipment. In a published report about the successful project, Carole Meyuniversitybusiness.com AV.indd 54 1/22/07 10:27:02 AM Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . 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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - February 2007

Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Stats Watch
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Admissions
On The Hill
Future Shock
Facilities Focus
Independent Outlook
Flu Pandemic Prep
Advancing the Brand
The Picture’s Getting Clearer
Groundbreaking Ideas
Gotta Get a Message to You
Internet Technology
What's New
calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - February 2007