Curtin Hall
University of Wisconsin
Simultaneous interpretation, the art of real time oral translation from one language to another, is not an easy skill to teach. So when planners at UW-Milwaukee decided to renovate their SI classroom, they teamed up with the university’s art and film studies departments to build a truly impressive audiovisual system.
The finished room and its AV systems are extraordinary enough to have won a national award from Presentations Magazine. The AV system includes:
- Audio equipment that allows up to six language interpreters to work at once, broadcasting from soundproof booths to audience members wearing Listen wireless receivers.
- A high-definition Sanyo projector, displaying images from a Crestron video processor that allows instructors to project a single wide-screen HDTV image, a single 4:3 aspect ratio image or two side by side images.
- 5.1 digital surround sound
- Ceiling-hung, podium, and wireless lavaliere microphones
- A high-end document camera
- Slide-to-video transfer plus standard slide projectors
- Crestron touch screen control of all AV and lighting
- An adjoining breakout room with an AV system that can function on its own or combine with the main room for overflow audiences.