When the University of Houston−Downtown (UHD) was searching for ways to upgrade its classroom technology, the design team turned to Kramer Electronics. Already Kramer customers, the team was familiar with the product line and knew the ProScale® digital scaler/switchers would make the grade for the first phase of the project. “Kramer has such a wide range of products that are ideal for many applications, and their cost/reliability ratio is excellent,” said Steve Cachia, manager of Video Network Operations at UHD. “We chose Kramer because we were confident in the product and the support,” he noted.
A liberal arts university located in Houston’s business district, UHD serves a diverse 12,000 students, offering small classes and specially tailored higher education opportunities. To maintain its cutting−edge position with students and businesses, UHD needed consistent HD video systems supporting high resolution video in each classroom. The technology design team also insisted on a system that was easy to use and offered intuitive controls that did not interfere with faculty instruction & teaching.
They selected the Kramer VP−728 ProScale® digital scaler/switcher for the smaller, 30−seat classrooms, and the VP−725xl ProScale® digital scaler/switcher with additional inputs for the instructional TV room. The units scale video and computer graphics video up or down to HD resolution. The resulting images are projected on an eight−foot screen and maintain their video clarity.
“Kramer’s ability to provide multiple units when we needed them was instrumental in getting the job done,” Cachia commented. “In addition, they provided back−up product so that there would be no down time in case of a technical issue.”
The intuitive control system of the scaler/switcher’s allowed the faculty to switch between sources easily, still maintaining high resolution picture quality on the projection screens. The system has been integrated into 13 classrooms, and UHD plans to install the Kramer product to upgrade an additional 13 classrooms this year.
