Guatemala's Francisco Marroquín University selected Sennheiser's TeamConnect Ceiling 2 technology for the future of its 52 classrooms with contactless audio.
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For 50 years, the Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala City, UFM, has been loyal to its mission of teaching and disseminating the ethical, legal and economic principles of a society of free and responsible individuals. The university is a pioneer of the ITA scholarship program that identifies students who are the most highly qualified and motivated among Guatemala's low-income population to earn a life-changing UFM degree.
Recently, the IT and AV team worked with the FAREI installer to deploy Sennheiser's TeamConnect Ceiling 2 (TCC2) microphones in 52 of its classrooms and several faculty auditoriums.
While plans for a new professional audio system had been underway for several years, the pandemic acted as a catalyst in modernizing the university's AV and IT infrastructures. The situation also resulted in adaptations to the UFM's collaboration and communication strategy, which now prioritizes hybrid teaching models, social distancing, and contactless audio.
"To begin with, we had to follow certain protocols and reduce the capacity of students in all our classrooms by distributing them all into two groups of assistants in the classroom and remote," said Victor Zetina, Head of Network Infrastructure at UFM. "Then we had to find a way to simultaneously teach and support these two groups effectively, offering live sessions that everyone could join."
With a 50-year reputation for being at the forefront of turning the campus learning environment into a dynamic collaborative process, UFM worked with FAREI, which specializes in implementing high-end audio solutions that will play a key role in the new era of hybrid learning at the university. UFM made contactless audio a key element of its collaboration and communication strategy.
"When the UFM team came to us to work together on finding the best audio solution for their needs, we knew right away that beamforming microphone technology would be the right way forward as it is one of the latest innovations in contactless audio and has truly proven its value as an effective and hygienic AV solution over the past year." said Fernando Falla, General Manager of FAREI.
After speaking with the university's IT and audiovisual team to identify their exact requirements, Falla and the FAREI team learned that UFM's top priority was to achieve the most natural seminar experience possible for participants both in the room and remotely. This included crisp audio and the technical convenience of not having to pass microphones from one collaborator to another.
"Sennheiser's TeamConnect Ceiling 2 has completely revolutionized connectivity and communication in conferences, meeting rooms and virtual situations by delivering extremely clear audio," said Annie Falla, Project and Services Manager at FAREI. "Also, with TCC2, you don't need to think about things like RF interference or worry about microphone hygiene, that's the beauty of a non-contact audio solution."
In addition to its easy installation and great sound quality, the price of the TCC2 gave the system a competitive advantage over other available solutions: "We compared it with some other devices on the market and the TCC2 was the one that convinced us the most for the way it works and also for its price," explained Víctor Zetina.
According to the UFM AV Coordinator, José Luis Milina, the main part of the project was to adapt the rooms so that they were totally hybrid. This involved looking at different scenarios for different types of classrooms and determining the best environment, as well as microphone coverage for each.
"With each room with unique acoustics, we had to find a perfect location for CBT2 in each of the classrooms so that the voices of teachers and students can be captured perfectly no matter where they sit or even if they move in the room," added Elder de León, AV technical installer at FAREI.
Thanks to the last TCC2 firmware update in February, the team was able to make full use of the innovative TruVoicelift feature, as well as select five exclusion zones and one priority zone in each classroom. "By defining different exclusion zones, not only were we able to eliminate unwanted noises, but we were also able to effectively stop the accumulation of reflections from the room," explained Annie Falla.
Hernán Domínguez, Business Communication Manager Latin America at Sennheiser, worked closely with the FAREI team on this complex project and provided their support and expertise when required.
"We want to thank Hernán and the rest of the Sennheiser team for their contribution and the support they gave us in this project," concluded Fernando Falla. "Thanks to the great teamwork between UFM, FAREI and Sennheiser, we managed to successfully finish the project on time, bringing contactless audio to the heart of UFM's facilities, which is also future-proof for many years to come."
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