Our military forces require more collaboration between branches than ever before. At the University of South Florida (USF) Joint Military Science Leadership Center (JMSLC) the goal is to provide the skills that facilitate that collaboration with a commitment to educate and train military officers to be prepared for leadership roles.
The JMSLC focuses on developing effective leadership in a changing environment through high quality classroom delivery, structured research, and community-based experiences. Thorburn Associates provided the audiovisual system design including systems for those classrooms.
The four-story building already had audiovisual infrastructure laid out and partially in place when TA was brought on board. TA’s audiovisual design included fleshing out that system with integrated audiovisual components using Universal Twisted Pair (UTP) based signal distribution.
The first floor classrooms are equipped with projection systems to supply distance learning and video-conference capabilities as well as traditional lecturing. The central control room on this floor (a satellite control room is on the 2nd floor) allows technicians to operate the cameras in the distance-learning rooms as well as acting as the central distribution point for all AV signals on the floor. Feeds from the 2nd floor auditorium will allow the 1st floor rooms to be used as overflow spaces for large events.
On the second floor, the auditorium and four attached, divisible classrooms are each video-conferencing capable and equipped with three projectors in the main room. Surround sound and theatrical lighting systems are also included in the auditorium.
The third floor consists of conference and meeting rooms with video-conferencing. The main video conferencing room has dual flat panel displays, a smart-board (overlay on a plasma display that allows marking up of documents and data storage) and ceiling-mounted microphones.
The fourth floor contains the commanding officers’ “war games” video conference room and offices. All are equipped with flat panel displays and set top video-conference systems.
As students learn the skills to be officers in our Nation’s Armed Services, they are aided by the latest technology in the classrooms.