Brunel University is currently a year into a 5-year modernisation programme for 14 lecture theatres.

Film fans may be disappointed to learn that this involves the transformation of one of the settings in A Clockwork Orange, lecture theatre E. The theatre featured in a scene in which the anti-hero is drugged and forced to watch violent crimes to recondition him into a harmless member of society. Brunel later donated the projector used in the film to a film museum.

While this year’s model is unlikely to grace any museum, it provides a pretty flexible presentation system. As well as being employed for university lectures it is earning its corn in commercial conferencing, with clients of the likes of Sainsbury’s and HSBC.

During the just-completed phase of the programme four lecture theatres and a classroom were fitted out by Altered Images. The theatres contain an identical equipment selection based around ceiling-mounted projectors, while the classroom features an interactive whiteboard. Both the theatres and the classroom are controlled with CUE systems.

The Media Services department manages the rooms, which are used by all the university’s teaching departments. In the 200-seater lecture theatres the lecturers have a wealth of resources in front of them in and on the credenza and raiseable lectern. The lectern holds a PC TFT screen, Wacom tablet (for live annotation), keyboard and the CUE touchscreen panel. The rest of the presentation and auxiliary equipment is located within the credenza. The presentation equipment includes a networked PC – supplied by educational partner Viglen – a Sony VHS player and a Pioneer DV 444 DVD player. Users can bring in their own laptops, which can be daisychained.

A Hitachi CP-X990W LCD projector takes all the above sources, which users can switch between using the Cue touch panel. Special menus for the VHS and DVD players are laid out like a remote control. The panel also controls the 6 lighting presets and dimmers and the volume of the programme sound. On beginning a session only the lighting is controllable, until the user has entered the system password.

CUE products are distributed in the UK by beyerdynamic and product manager Jon Stanley programmed Brunel’s system, which is comprised of the touch panel, plus – stored in the credenza – the main Assistant unit and the eCue TCP/IP interface. Altered Images is currently testing the provision of authorised external access to the control system, which will enable remote monitoring of the system activity and reprogramming if required.

The theatres are web conferencing enabled, through the provision of an IP phone. Nick Townend, multimedia development officer, says: ‘We’re aiming to create a more IT-based environment which is as interactive as possible with regard to students or corporate clients. The PCs in the presentation rooms will be integrated with the mainframe of the university. Presentations can be emailed to students after they have been annotated during the session through the Smartboard software.’

Altered Images installed three sound systems in each of the theatres – programme sound, voice reinforcement, and an induction loop for hearing aid users. The programme sound system amplifies the audio track of the source being projected and is output through a pair of JBL control 5 speakers mounted at the front of the theatre. Voice reinforcement uses a gooseneck microphone on the lectern and boundary microphone on the credenza, output through ceiling speakers over the audience. These ceiling speakers assist with the distribution of the programme sound.

The classroom is virtually identical to the lecture theatres, only with a touchscreen projection screen, no induction loop and no touch lighting control.

The newly installed theatres have considerably reduced the workload of the a-v technicians, and they no longer have to delay the start times of lectures to set up the presentation equipment. Lecturers’ fear of the technology seems to have been overcome by the tactile nature of the touch panel, notes Townend.

Fortunately there was no need to recondition them too.