To look at the glass half-full, one of the great things that has emerged over the course of 2020 is the digital acceleration taking place in education. Instructors have found that having the right tools can make a dramatic difference in remote and hybrid learning environments. Tools that are easy to use and allow teachers to ‘untether’ from their laptops have the power to create a more natural and dynamic experience for everyone involved. So, what’s in the secret sauce? Poly’s personal audio solutions such as headsets and speakerphones to room-based systems like cameras and video bars with speaker tracking are now emerging as the key ingredient in making everyone feel like they’re in the room together again.

Three of the 10 largest school districts in the country, as well as thousands of others, have chosen Poly to help them navigate distance learning. While each institution’s remote teaching needs are unique, we’ll walk you through a few general approaches to hybrid learning with which Poly can help with.

PROVIDING TEACHERS PERSONAL EQUIPMENT

When it comes to optimal flexibility, providing an educator with their own distance learning equipment is a great way to go – especially as schools open and close according to Covid-19 measures. Set your instructors up for success with high-resolution cameras and personal devices with the Poly Studio P Series and a noise-canceling headset from the Poly Voyager line. 

SHARED DEVICES

Some classes require robust video and teachers need the ability to naturally move around the room to provide demonstrations. Meaning, sometimes shared remote teaching setups are a better fit. In these situations, the Poly Studio Family provides a powerful and portable solution for teachers sharing equipment. These simple, all-in-one video bars are easy to get up and running fast with no PC or Mac needed and work flexibly with almost any meeting platform. Visit our website to view a full comparison of our different Poly Studio models.

Institutions like Franklin Pierce University have found success using the Poly Studio X Family to instruct students at a distance or from their dorm room. “We now think of the classroom as a place for both in-room and distant learning which has added a whole other dimension to teaching,” Frank Cohen, Associate Professor at Franklin Pierce University said. “Poly delivers as close to an in-classroom experience as you can get.”

Additionally, we’re excited to introduce Poly EduCart 2, a mobile solution to bring exceptional video to wherever you need it most. The EduCart 2 includes a Poly G7500 and an EagleEye camera mounted within the cart enclosure. This sturdy cart was designed to be easily rolled from room to room or all the way across campus.

The EduCart 2 can accommodate a variety of Simply order monitors from your preferred supplier in the dimensions that best suit your institution’s needs. To add a whole other dimension to the learning experience, the Poly G7500 supports whiteboarding and wireless content sharing if you choose a monitor with touch screen capabilities. Wireless content sharing is a powerful tool to use in the classroom to allow students to share content from their personal devices.

WE’LL HELP YOU FIND FUNDING

Poly’s Grants Assistance Program (PGAP) is a free “no strings attached” resource for organizations looking for assistance in navigating all forms of funding… from help with understanding rules, timing and justification for stimulus allocations, to providing guidance and support with competitive grant applications.  For more information feel free to contact Grants@Poly.com.

For more information about Poly’s solutions for education visit www.poly.com/education.

With COVID-19 forcing television productions to work remotely — from local news stations to SNL — we’re seeing explosive growth in reporters, anchors and entertainers quickly turning to web-based videoconferencing platforms to produce programs. In many cases, networks eager to get their talent and content on-air as quickly as possible, are making do with a hastily thrown together patchwork of technology that isn’t optimized to work together or designed for this purpose. Unfortunately, what we are seeing most often is the use of a simple webcam connected to a laptop with some home lighting.

What’s Missing?

Except for the higher budget productions that can afford to roll in a satellite truck and a studio camera into the talent’s home, most are limited to a unidimensional shot where the presenters are fixed in one place. The viewing experience is exacerbated by poor audio quality and misplaced cameras.

Outfitting the Crew

Poly offers multiple levels of video and audio solutions to help producers address these challenges with studio-quality AV gear that can be quickly and easily deployed for home production, without the need for an IT Guy to set up.

The Anchor or Host

These are the folks that will be on-air the most. Therefore, top notch gear is critical to ensure high-quality audio and video. Poly recommends going with a Studio X30 on top of a 24 or 27 inch monitor. The X30 has a built-in 4K camera with automatic speaker framing so they can move around freely and stay in the frame as if they had a videographer in the room. The Poly Studio X30 also has incredible audio pick-up and local sound.

The Correspondent

The correspondent can use their laptop with our Poly Studio USB solution. This device still offers the freedom of movement with audio framing and speaker tracking while providing incredible local audio and microphone pickup. The video service is connected via their computer.

The Guest or Remote Expert

For on-the-fly guests, you may be limited to using whatever camera and audio setup they have at their disposal. However, for the recurring expert panelist or pre-scheduled guest, Poly offer solutions that will greatly enhance their experience and ensure they sound amazing to viewers on the remote end.

• Headsets or portable speakerphones with HD audio will ensure their voices are heard clearly.
• Discreet headsets such as the Voyager 5200 Office and UC Series will block out unwanted noise.
• For video, the EagleEye Cube provides incredible crisp HD video with the most amazing backlight compensation algorithms that makes the participants “jump” off the screen. The Cube also has a built-in stereo microphone for true-to-life quality. Click here to see it in action.

Pro-Tips for Your DIY Production Studio

Camera Position

As for the camera setup, position the camera at eye-level or slightly above. You may need to get creative here and use whatever you have at your disposal — boxes, books, pillows — just get that camera high enough to avoid showing off your nose hairs.

Network Quality is Key

In a live, conversational scenario, ensuring that you have a low latency connection will reduce the amount of awkward cross-talking and long pauses. Among other factors, latency is greatly influenced by your network quality. That’s why choosing your service provider wisely has never been more important. And, in the case it’s your slow connection is due to your geographic location, a cellular hotspot can go a long way.

A Quality Headset

That “hollow” echoing heard in many rooms is merely the due to using the wrong kind of headset. This is because most standard headsets are tuned for music — not for speaking on broadcast TV!

Standardize on a Video Platform

It’s important to choose a reliable video platform for your productions teams to stay connected and collaborating when everyone is working from home.  Standardizing on a reliable platform and getting everyone up to speed with the user interfaces and content sharing functionality will ensure your teams will be ready for primetime. Poly works with leading cloud-based communication services such as, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, GoTo, and Skype to deliver optimal content regardless of the video platform you choose to go with.

Poly (formerly Polycom & Plantronics) has long been trusted in the broadcast industry for providing the highest quality audio and video experience. Our solutions have been used for thousands of remotes and continues to be the company of choice for leading live or live-to-tape productions. From remote locations to the studio….and now even to home offices, Poly’s gear seamlessly fits into your workflow, even when life throws you a curve ball!

Visit Poly.com for more information.

Imagine having a classroom that has the capability to instantly connect with an expert to answer a student’s question. Or to invite guest speakers to give a talk without the hassle and expense of travel. Or to take the class on a field trip without ever leaving the room.

With the announcement of the Poly Studio X family, educators who have Zoom-enabled classrooms now have a new world of educational options open to them. The Studio X family offers compact sizes, incredible audio and video technology, and radically simple deployment, so organizations can now easily get Zoom-enabled video up and running in more locations than ever before. Poly offers two different models, the X30 and the X50, to cover classrooms and environments of various sizes.

Let’s start with the ease of deployment, which is critical for all levels of education. Traditionally, when Zoom users wanted to set up video conferencing in a room, they would have some sort of computing device connected to a TV to drive the experience. That methodology is so 2018!

The Poly Studio X family provides a native Zoom Rooms experience. What that means is that students and educators who are used to using Zoom from their laptops or other devices can now have the same experience controlled right from the Studio X family itself. You won’t be fumbling around with a remote control to place a call, because Poly has also introduced the Poly TC8, a sleek, simple and powerful touch controller that becomes your Zoom Rooms controller.

As for design, the Studio X30 is small enough to slip into a backpack but has significant audio power. The Studio X50 is just slightly larger and it offers an even more powerful audio experience with dual speakers and additional microphones for a greater pickup range. So there’s an option for both small and medium-sized classrooms.

With both units, a 4K camera delivers incredible self-framing video, making sure that everyone in the class has a perfect experience, whether students are on the near or far ends of the room. The camera technology covers the entire classroom and can be set to focus in on individual students when they begin to speak, so no one on the call is squinting at a classroom of tiny faces, trying to figure out who’s saying what.

From elementary school classrooms to executive MBA programs, the Poly Studio X family opens up a world of options for all educational organizations.

Remember the first time you experienced watching a DVD? How about the first time you saw your favorite sport on TV in HD? I’ve been having those same feelings these past few months as Poly has been working on our new video codec, the Poly G7500.

Content is King

The G7500 is a fresh new video conferencing solution from Poly that puts content at the center of the experience.  I’m talking about making content the MOST important part of the system.  You have complete wireless content sharing in and out of a call in up to 4K video resolution!  Even when the G7500 is not in a video call, users can use the G7500 as a presentation system using Apple AirPlay, Miracast or Poly’s own Content App to share content wirelessly or you can plug in via HDMI as well! In addition to sharing content, the G7500 has incredible whiteboard functionality allowing users to brainstorm using the infinite whiteboard space.

4K content opens up so many incredible use cases and new applications. Take, for example, Dr. Robert Vincent, renowned ear surgeon from the Causse Ear Clinic, Colombiers, France.  Dr. Vincent trains doctors on inner-ear microscopic surgery over video conference and is very excited about using 4K technology in surgery.  “4K makes training very close to what the actual surgeon’s eye is seeing,” Dr. Vincent said.

People in 4K

Content is great, but what if I want to see my co-workers in Ultra HD 4K?  Poly G7500 delivers an incredible 4K people experience using the new EagleEye Cube camera with G7500 software version 2.1.  EagleEye Cube offers up to 4K30 video and frame rate that also includes group and speaker tracking along with a 120-degree field-of-view. With the advanced framing technology, you no longer have to worry if you are being seen—with the EagleEye Cube, you ARE being seen.

4K video resolution may not be that important to you right now, but I promise, the same way HD video is a must-have today at home and in the office, UHD 4K will be there soon enough.  From just about 2 Mbps, users will be able to experience 4K video when used with EagleEye Cube USB.

If you really have no need for 4K today, no worries, the G7500 also does standards-based video, from QCIF up to 1080p.

What Else?

How about IP based microphones using standard LAN cables? No more proprietary audio cables for Poly.  Imagine the possibilities of using IP microphones that can pair with the G7500 over the network?  I’ll talk most about that later, but now, just imagine the possibilities.

One interface, simple deployment and training for administrators and end-users. No longer do users have to learn multiple and in some cases, very complex interfaces to do simple tasks like sharing content from their laptop or tablet. The G7500 makes video conferencing and content sharing easy.

Wireless Content Sharing, 4K Resolution, Seamless Deployment….is this Real?

It is! For more information on the G7500, please visit www.poly.com/G7500. Over the next few months I’ll be posting more about the G7500, so please keep your eye out.