Mixing existing AV with AV over IP – IDK and SDVoE Enhance Hybrid Learning at Ritsumeikan University in Japan
Case study: Ritsumeikan University Osaka Ibaraki Campus
4K AV over IP Dante Multiview Hybrid Class
About
Ritsumeikan University is one of the premier and most successful private universities in Japan with an astonishing 120-year history. Completed in 2015 and renovations made as recent as 2024, the Osaka Ibaraki campus, located between Osaka and Kyoto, boast a nine-story building where students come to take courses in the Colleges of Information Science and Engineering and Image Arts and Science. The Universities vision is to have a “Socially Connected Campus” to meet the needs of today and be prepared for the future.
The focus for this case study is a newly designed classroom which can seat over 200 students and promotes hybrid learning in a group environment. This classroom was planned for providing students and facilitates a next generation learning environment. This hybrid learning setting provides students with both traditional face-to face and online learning styles. This provides students an alternative in how they participate. Even if the student cannot take part in a face-to-face class, the student is able to contribute to the class as a remote learner and share in the lecture materials.
Challenges
It was important that Ritsumeikan preserve a user-friendly and future-ready classroom for the over 200 students participating in either the main class or in small groups. When used as a divisible space, each group would need access to a monitor and a touch panel to easily share local content (BYOD; bringing in their own device), lecture material, timers, or any other content provided during instruction. At the instructor’s station, large projectors were needed to display content to the class as a whole and confidence monitors were also desired to aid the instructors. The other main challenge was connectivity. This new AV system needed to be flexible and versatile to support a variety of devices in multiple locations. Ritsumeikan University also emphasized the importance of an instinctive and easily updateable system control that felt intuitive to all instructors and students.
Solution
For the main AV system and video transport, the university selected IDK’s SDVoE-based AV over IP solution, IP-NINJAR. Kengo Kurashina, a member of Ritsumeikan’s Division of Information Technology Services, mentions that “HDCP video and audio can be output stably and freely from various devices over the IP-NINJAR system.” At each student station, a 43in monitor and a touch panel were installed to allow students to share group work material and content from local BYOD, display the instructors content at their own station, as well as display a timer. To accomplish that, local AV switching, and AV connectivity was added to support microphones, cameras, and BYOD, all driven by encoders, decoders, and transceivers from IDK’s IP-NINJAR SDVoE portfolio. At the instructor’s station, similar AV connectivity was provided to ensure visibility of learning materials for all participants. The large monitor and confidence monitors video was delivered by IDK’s FDX matrix switchers. IDK has built SDVoE technology not only in its IP-NINJAR line up, but also into its baseband solutions to empower even more possibility with local and IP video distribution. The university also deployed IDK’s SDVoE transceiver product which support bi-directional audio, video, LAN/RS-232, and USB to help simplify the design and lower port count needed at the network switch, saving time and equipment cost.
IDK’s IP-NINJAR series products were selected for the following reasons:
- More than 80 devices can be configured on a single control panel.
- Audio can be converted to and from Dante (with IDK’s NJR-AB08DAN Dante Bridge)
- The IDK’s transceiver model supports bidirectional audio, video, LAN/RS-232, and USB transmission, simplifying the system by reducing the number of network ports.
- Allows mixing of AV over IP and traditional AV such as HDBaseT
4K@60 HDMI Transceiver CAT modelNJR-P01UC-TR
4K@60 HDMI Encoder CAT modelNJR-P01UC-T
4K@60 HDMI Decoder CAT modelNJR-P01UC-R
IP-NINJAR Management PlatformNJR-CTB
4K@60 Modular Matrix Switcher with 16 Inputs and 16 OutputsFDX-S16U
4K@60 HDBaseT TransmitterHDC-TH100-D
4K@60 HDBaseT ReceiverHDC-RH100-D
4K@60 HDBaseT Receiver with 2 Inputs and 5 OutputsHDC-RH421UHD
Results
