SUDBURY, Mass. — Yamaha Unified Communications is easing the transition to remote learning for universities while ensuring teaching excellence. Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, selected and installed 36 Yamaha YVC-1000 Microphone and Speaker Systems across 32 new hybrid classrooms, clearly capturing the audio of the entire classroom and delivering it to the far end. With the YVC-1000 in place, remote students don’t have to worry about ever missing the conversation, and professors don’t have to spend time repeating questions.
“We first tested the YVC-1000 in our shop where we have this big fan. When we turn that fan on, it gets really noisy. The YVC-1000 cancelled it out,” said Douglas Wenger, manager of technical support services. “I don’t expect a mic located right next to a fan to be able to cancel out that level of noise.”
The Zoom-certified Yamaha YVC-1000 uniquely features a separate intelligent microphone and full-range speaker unit that can be placed close to a display for naturally blended audio and video to enable full far-end comprehension. Yamaha’s adaptive echo cancellation and other unique, high-quality sound processing technologies developed over the years also help facilitate a stress-free conversation.
Because the YVC-1000 allows for up to five microphones to be daisy-chained, it’s perfectly suited to pick up the audio around the room. Another benefit is that the technology staff can tailor the number of mics used, and where they are laid out within the room, to optimize the audio for the room size and shape. Depending on the size of the room, each is equipped with three, four, or five microphones. The speakerphone’s scalable, easy-to-deploy architecture was ideal for turning the former event spaces as well as a 125-seat theater into a high-quality, hybrid classroom in under an hour.
“In a college class, a vital part of learning is the discussion that takes place between the instructor and students. However, most classrooms are not equipped to capture that exchange for remote students, and they lose out on that information,” said Meghan Kennelly, Yamaha UC’s director of global marketing and communications. “Willamette is a great demonstration of YVC-1000’s powerful capabilities in supporting arising audio challenges due to COVID-19. With YVC-1000, colleges and universities can affordably and quickly answer the question of how to help remote students feel as if they are right in class.”
