AV Case Study: St Philip’s Christian College
One independent school in Newcastle takes ‘active learning’ very seriously indeed.
18 November 2024
Text:/ Christopher Holder
St Philip’s Christian College’s new Active Learning Centre is more than a gymnasium but the basketball court is at its heart – and it’s a doozy. In fact, it’s a NBA-standard court. I can say this with certainty because when we visited, the NBA (the National Basketball Association from the USA) was running a youth training session. Seals of approval don’t come much more emphatic than that.
That said, the hard-floor had a false start. Only days before the Active Learning Centre (ALC) was to be inaugurated, a fault with the fire alarm system activated a sprinkler system that flooded the courts and the under floor spaces with hundred of thousands of litres of water – an absolute write-off.
Months later – after the flooring was totally replaced and relaid – the ALC was ready for action. It was the final delay in a long design and build process that completes the school’s ‘trinity’ of larger community infrastructure that includes a 500-seat theatre and a trade training centre, with a huge undercover soccer deck in the centre of the action that doubles as a gathering space.
COMMAND & CONTROL
St Philip’s is a thriving community. There are around 1450 students on its Newcastle site, with other campuses in Gosford, Port Stephens and more planned.
In other words, the school is in a growth phase, and Director of Infrastructure Development, David Price, is right in the eye of the storm. David has an IT background and has an IT manager’s appreciation of centralised monitoring and control. He also wanted to embark on the ALC project with an agreed-upon set of standardised technology platforms.
Not long prior to working on the ALC, David engaged Innavate Integrated Solutions. With Anthony Finlay running point, Innavate demonstrated a deep knowledge and appreciation of leading edge AV over IP solutions and design. Innavate shares David’s enthusiasm for a standardised approach to technology for a bunch of solid reasons.
David Price: “We run a centralised IT team for AV support, making it economical for servicing and support, rather than having each school do something different. The decision was to make technology as simple as possible for our teaching staff.
“The ALC represents our first dip into the world of AV over IP with Crestron NVX. Initially, our electrical engineering consultant recommended it for its flexibility. For example, it allows us to replace end points as new technology comes on board, without running new cable.
“But ultimately probably the biggest advantage of AV over IP is its visibility on where everything is and whether it’s functioning optimally. Our IT team can easily see what’s happening across the organisation.”
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The teaching spaces don’t look or feel like a regular K-12 classroom. The tables, displays and the whiteboard are all reconfigurable. It looks more like a university campus.
MOBILECONNECT FOR GEN Z
The college chose a Sennheiser MobileConnect assistive hearing system for the ALC. There are some interesting dimensions to the choice of a device-based system for this application. The first is obvious: compliance – by law you need to provide such a system for those with hearing problems. Another, slightly less obvious dimension, is how improved (an ubiquitous) wifi infrastructure can make a system such as MobileConnect just as solid as a loop or infrared based equivalent. And, again, being a BYOD approach, those using the system can do so without drawing attention to themselves (especially now that everyone has AirPods, or a similar product, in their ears). Finally, the emerging dimension is how Gen-Zers are often electing to use earphones to get into their own zone when studying, and a system like MobileConnect provides a frictionless was of joining the students where ‘they’re at’. Not something you’d advise for primary school kids, but the ALC is catering to students on the cusp of university or other post-K-12 studies/employment.
HIGHER ED
The ALC houses a number of classrooms and staff facilities along with the hard courts, a dance studio and other exercise/fitness areas.
The teaching spaces don’t look or feel like a regular K-12 classroom. They don’t have a whiteboard at the front, for starters. The tables, displays and the whiteboard are all reconfigurable. It looks more like a university campus.
David Price: “We’re investing in project-based learning, emphasising collaborative teaching and critical thinking skills. The spaces are designed for flexibility, with interconnected TVs and Sennheiser microphones to enhance learning and well-being. Teachers can plug in or connect wirelessly to share content across the space.”
The teacher can connect a laptop to a wallplate or wirelessly to one of the displays. A Crestron compact touchpanel makes that selection straightforward. A Crestron CP4 in-room controller pulls the strings in the background.
The teacher (or indeed a student who’s presenting) can grab a Sennheiser Speechline handheld microphone from the charge bay and enjoy effortless voice lift via the in-ceiling speakers. According to David, if the teacher isn’t forced to raise their voice, it all helps maintain a sense of collaboration in the classroom.
“We went with SpeechLine handheld mics for simplicity – everyone knows how to use a handheld mic.”
HOLDING COURT
Another four-channel Speechline receiver services the basketball courts. The idea here is to have an ‘always-there’ presentation system to take care of assemblies and other ad hoc gatherings. For example, the school has embraced the basketball courts and the colosseum-like viewing areas to stage regular house tournaments enthusiastically attended by other house members. Sennheiser Speechline takes care of the voiceovers/commentary and there’s playback of Wurlitzer-style hype music, rousing the crowd via powerful Martin Audio 12-inch two-way loudspeakers mounted in the ceiling and perimeter. An outdoor-rated 3.9mm Unilumin LED displays the scores and other visual elements. The day-to-day level of production is really quite high. But not as high as when the gymnasium goes into full production mode.
Two Martin Audio WPM line arrays (12 deep with two WPM subwoofers a side) are normally winched up and out of the way but can lower into position during a rock eisteddfod or the like. It’s a formidable system.
“It’s a long line and about 450kg of PA a side,” according to Innavate’s Anthony Finlay. “But we needed the length to get the vertical coverage of the three levels. It’s a lot of PA but it’s a large area. And we wanted the pattern control that comes with that many enclosures individually addressed by amp channels.”
Once the big doors are open down one side of the courts, some 2000 seated patrons can be addressed indoors and out. Outdoors, in the undercover soccer pitch area, two additional Unilumin LED screens take care of video content/IMAG, and hefty Martin Audio double-15 full-range loudspeakers provide audio coverage.
For gatherings such as an ANZAC Day ceremony this set up will come into its own.
David Price: “The original vision for that outdoor space was a bit different. Initially, the idea was to hire in the PA and LED on a case-by-case basis. But after we worked through some scenarios, we quickly realised the rent of the technology, along with the chairs, carpet etc, would be big impost over the equivalent life-time of those assets. Instead, by having the technology installed and in place, it gives the space real flexibility – it’s just so multifunctional now. Of course, you don’t want a space so flexible that it doesn’t do anything well but I think we’ve got the right balance.”
Innavate Integrated Solutions: innavate.com.au
Sennheiser: sennheiser.com
TAG (Martin Audio): tag.com.au
RESPONSES