The University of Arizona,
Bio Sciences Partnership Building

The Phoenix Biomedical Campus which is transforming 40 acres of downtown Phoenix, Arizona into a biomedical powerhouse has a new addition; the 10 story, 245,000 sqft UA Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building (BSPB).

The University of Arizona’s BSPB will serve as a hub for health care science and research. The building is already off to a great start winning an award for its use of copper and has been accredited as LEED Silver certified for its sustainability. Level 3 Audiovisual was the chosen AV integrator to install the campuses myriad of new technology.

Combine Divide Seminar Room

The first floor of the BSPB houses a 160-seat seminar room with a combine/divide space. This multi-purpose room will be used for instruction, distance learning, video conferencing, seminars, hosted breakout sessions and working groups.

This space is filled with modular tables and chairs that can be arranged into many different uses. Each side of the room has multiple floor boxes allowing the lecterns to be placed into four different locations in each room. Each lectern is outfitted with a 10” Crestron controller that allows for room control, source selection and volume control. Wireless Shure microphones positioned at each lectern provides instructors and presenters freedom to move about the room and be heard. The wireless system also has a return path. For example, during a lecture, an earpiece connected to the instructor’s wireless belt pack microphone transmitter can amplify the question posed by a student, picked up by the ceiling microphones.

This combine/divide room is unique in that it has a Dante audio network connecting auxiliary overflow from the adjacent courtyard into the seminar space. Three ceiling microphone arrays on each side were pre-programmed with the most used room configurations, but in the event a furniture layout creates a situation where the required microphone coverage pattern changes, the microphone array software can be used to move coverage patterns to better suit the current arrangement. Selecting a preset can revert the system back to a known state.

Four Sony laser projectors cast brilliant detail onto four Draper access series ceiling mounted motorized projection screens. When presenting at the front of the class, the presenter can utilize two 65” NEC displays for confidence viewing and is able to route any source wherever they please.

Team Rooms

The team rooms at the BSPB are identically sized meeting spaces on floors 5-9. Each room features a 65” NEC wall mounted flat panel display for presentations and video conferencing using soft codecs (Zoom, S4B, etc.) An economical USB camera and microphone solution was used here for video conferencing from a dedicated PC or any laptop connected to AV and USB connections at the table. Ceiling speakers provide amazing sound quality while table microphones will pick up speech within the room. Room automation is employed here to automate the room power and device selection with minimal interaction from the user.

Meeting Rooms

The meeting rooms at the BSPB are identical to the team rooms so that the user experience is consistent. However, since these rooms are larger, they need bigger AV gear! We upgraded the displays to 80” NECs as well as two extra in-ceiling speakers. Another Biamp microphone was added to the table for ease of use at both ends as well as another table cubby with HDMI and USB connections.

Courtyard

The exterior courtyard area features audio connections to the main seminar system. Due to the minimum amount of conduit available, Dante audio input/output boxes from Attero tech were chosen to be installed in outdoor pedestals. This allows for the U of A media team to easily connect microphones, mixing boards and powered speakers in many scenarios to support outdoor events. Activities in the combine/divide seminar space can even overflow out into the courtyard. In the future, video-over-IP solutions can be implemented using the network connections to overflow video presentations or camera views of presenters out to temporary displays.