Lecturer conducts a lecture in the lecture hall, where they have all required resources and materials on hand. Students can fully participate in the lecture onsite or remotely.

Based on our experience, we have created ready-to-implement sets of equipment for a large lecture theatre, enabling remote teaching.

Lecture hall equipment:

• High brightness projector displaying an image on an electrically unfolded screen, made for presentations and  other multimedia content. Optional large format LED display screen;
• Additional preview display screen showing images from the remote students’ cameras (optional LED display screen).
• Traditional whiteboard. Optional touch screen with an electronic interactive whiteboard function for writing and notes-making;
• PTZ camera installed under the ceiling, following the lecturer;
• Additional fixed focal length camera pointing at the writing board;
• Ceiling array microphones recording sound of lecturer’s speech with a noise cancellation function (such as rustle, hum or other noise in the space);
• Lecture hall sound system with an acoustic echo cancellation technology (AEC);
• Dedicated video conferencing codec with application licence (such as Microsoft Teams Rooms) and a touch screen panel on the lecturer’s desk.
• Integrated control system, with artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR).

Student’s equipment:

• A computer or a tablet with a touch screen and an electronic pen for writing;
• A video conferencing application (such as Microsoft Teams) installed;
• A headset including headphones and a microphone with an ANC technology (active noise cancelling).

Hybrid lecture in a lecture hall – run-through:

A lecturer is conducting a lecture whilst being physically present in the lecture hall, having all required resources on hand. In order to conduct a hybrid lecture the lecturer needs to have a computer with a video conferencing software installed.

A PTZ camera installed under the ceiling, is pointing at the lecturer. Television studio AI algorithms control the camera head and its zoom – tracking and focusing on the lecturer. Thanks to the second camera (fixed focal length camera) pointed at the board and the use of augmented reality (AR), it is possible to extract the handwritten notes from the whiteboard. Notes, drawings, diagrams, sketches are automatically recognised and presented to the remote students in real time as a “floating” layer in front of the lecturer in the whiteboard area. As a result, even if the lecturer stands in front of the whiteboard, the notes are still visible to students. Switching the image between the lecturer and the whiteboard happens automatically, with a smooth transition effect, depending whether the lecturer is speaking to students or writing on the board.

Next to the main presentation screen there is an additional preview screen showing images from the remote students’ cameras. Thanks to this the lecturer can see the students present in the lecture hall, and those participating in the lecture remotely, at the same time.

Schedules of lectures for all groups of students are logged in the calendar i.e., Microsoft Teams. Thanks to this, students can see their rota once they log into the application, and the lecturer sees a schedule of the lectures in this particular room on the touch panel on the desk (with a highlighted lecture that is due to commence).

The lecturer can commence the lecture with one click on the touch panel – the audio-visual system in the room is turning on automatically, together with a lecture transmission online. Remote students can see the lecturer, lecturer’s presentation and notes on their computer screen or tablet. Once unmuted by the lecturer, the students can be heard by all participants, asked questions and actively participate in the lecture if required.

The lecture can be recorded and, as a material not requiring any TV post-production, shared with students who were not able to participate in the lecture or can be used for material revision.