University of Padua Renovates Its Classrooms with MXA310 Table Array Microphones

Customer Profile

The highly prestigious University of Padua is one of Europe’s most ancient education establishments (even the renowned astronomer, philosopher and mathematician Galileo Galilei once taught within the university). 

It benefits from 32 departments, divided into hundreds of classrooms, both in the historic Centre and in many other cities nearby.

Challenge

Each department had its own specific AV technologies without a common strategy. This resulted in extremely fragmented support, maintenance and a significant number of technical support people. There was also no common network.

Before the pandemic, the university was looking at ways to update the AV infrastructure and to approach and embrace a hybrid educational model. The pandemic made the project a priority, with the goal to get the students back in the city as soon as possible. The brief from the University’s team was for a reliable audio solution, scalable, potentially working on a common network, Zoom certified, along with remote management in order to offer to academics a classroom which was always ready for teaching. 

Solution

Derecom (AV Consultant), 3P Technologies (System Integrator) and Prase’s design team suggested the implementation of a totally new and common network to link all the departments and a box containing all the AV technologies. Between them, the decision was made to utilize and install Shure’s MXA310, with the benefit of being small, compact and over IP. Providing the perfect audio pick-up, academics are now free to start lectures immediately and effectively without the distractions of technical complications.

Advantages

Each classroom lecture is delivered on an MXA310, with the same set-up implemented in every room, creating an efficient and standardized experience for academics and the tech team. Audio quality is perfect both on-site and via the Zoom platform.

“Our mandate was to ensure the same conditions for both those who would attend the courses from home and in the classroom, explains Dario Da Re - Director of the Digital Learning and Multimedia Office, IT and Telematic Services Area.

“Audio quality was our primary focus, to break down distances and virtually unify all our students.”

Gear List

	Model Number	Quantity	Description
	MXA310	340	Table array microphone utilizes Steerable Coverage technology to capture pristine audio around conferencing tables of various sizes and shapes.