About Alvernia University
Alvernia University is a private Catholic university in Reading, Pennsylvania that offers more than 600 courses and over 50 undergraduate majors and minors to its estimated 3,000-students.
Challenge
Alvernia University wanted to reach a wider audience of students and local residents for classes, lectures, community events, and performances across its three campuses in eastern Pennsylvania. Their media suite facility houses a 125-seat lecture hall featuring videoconferencing systems that connect to the university’s two satellite campuses and outside endpoints for distance learning. The challenge was to seamlessly integrate state-of-the-art technologies that had worked in traditional classes and use them for satellite campuses, performances and other community events.
Solution
Kramer’s solution allows multiple users with different skill levels to easily control and manage AV sources throughout the site. The site includes a lecture hall, video studio, control room, sound room and an interactive computer lab. With Kramer products seamlessly integrated, participants are now able to access a variety of sources quickly and easily.
Three sets of Kramer TP-121EDID and TP-122EDID twisted pair transmitter/receivers transmit VGA signals from a document camera, laptop and room PC directly to the matrix switcher. Three sets of Kramer PT-571 and PT-572+ twisted pair transmitter/receivers transmit HDMI signals from a DVD/ VCR, laptop PC and Blu-ray DVD player to a Kramer VS-66HDCP DVI matrix switcher.
Three DLP projectors display video and source material in the lecture hall and are connected to the system through three Kramer VP-437xl HDMI scaler/switchers. A fourth VP-437xl unit links to a Kramer FC-32 DVI to computer graphics/component video format converter which sends a signal back to the control room.
A Kramer VP-731 ProScale® digital scaler/switcher distributes video sources to the video conferencing codec. Kramer DGKat™ cabling is used throughout the media center, connecting video sources with cable runs of up to 160 feet.
Results
“The system has been a success for us because the technology was designed to be as easy as possible,” said Miro Liwosz, Instructional Media Specialist at Alvernia University. “We want the focus to be on instructing, so we made sure the technology did not get in the way of the content.”
The solution’s reliability was critical because it would be used by a wide variety of people. It had to be intuitive and work every time. “The Kramer product was not only reliable, but the value associated with Kramer was also of utmost importance for an education client,” said Bob Lobascio, Vice President of Sales at IMS Audio Visual, the local professional integrator.
A graduate of DeVry Institute of Technology, Doug has been in the Technology industry since 1976 and actively oversees Fearing’s daily operations. Along with his wife, Lois, and three others, Doug started Fearing’s in a 600 square-foot facility in Portage, Wisconsin. In the 25 years since, the company has grown to over 30 employees with offices in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Doug likes to say he’s a “TV Technician with a dream� going back to his history with the family’s original business-Fearing’s TV and Appliance.
Doug values time with family, watersports, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing. In addition to being a devoted member of his church, Doug serves as Board President for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County, Board member of Schools for Haiti and Scripture Chair of the Gideons-Portage camp.
A graduate of MATC, Lois oversees Fearing’s daily book keeping along with various HR responsibilities.
Along with Doug, Lois is deeply connected to community outreach, serving as a Board member and Fundraising Committee Chairperson for Kinship Mentoring of Columbia County. She also serves on the Schools for Haiti Fundraising committee. In addition, Lois’ ongoing passion and commitment to provide care for the elderly comes from her 10-year history of working in a Reedsburg, Wisconsin Nursing home.
Lois enjoys singing, hiking, sunny days on the pontoon, and spending time with her 4 grandchildren.
Ehren drives Fearing’s technology by continually seeking out trends to enhance capabilities while supporting Sales, Engineering and Installation teams. Throughout his years with Fearing’s, Ehren’s talent and vision have joined forces to create a wide variety of projects and strategic solutions that exceed expectation.
Ehren loves music, family time, movies, nature, sustainability efforts and electric vehicles.
With 10 years with Fearing’s and over twice that long in the industry, Ben continues to lead, coordinate, and develop the Commercial AV team.
By consistently delivering an outstanding experience and outcome, Ben contributes to the Fearing’s legacy of long-lasting partnerships that truly make a difference. Whatever the Commercial AV need may be, Ben and team deliver at the highest level.
Ben is an avid fisherman and photographer. He enjoys coaching his sons and other youth.
Chris has been with Fearing’s for 20 years and in the industry for over 2 decades. As a Certified leader in Sales Acceleration and trained in EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating Systems), Chris successfully utilizes his skills to lead the Fearing’s Salesforce. Chris and team are motivated and driven to develop new client partnerships while continuing to reinforce loyal long-term relationships with ongoing Service excellence.
Married for 19 years with 3 children, Chris enjoys skiing, hiking, fishing, boating, hunting, camping and golf. He’s also been actively involved as a Youth Football and Softball coach for his family and others.
