Renewal of Audio/Video Systems

Until 2026, the University of Zurich will renew the aging audio/video systems in the centrally allocated rooms and all institutes. In total, the renovation will affect over 65 lecture halls and more than 120 seminar rooms at the UZH. The technological change from analogue to digital is accompanied by major challenges.

Like all other universities, UZH must make the technological change from analogue to digital in the lecture halls and seminar rooms for all audio-visual equipment (AV systems), otherwise the entire event operation with the quality expected today can no longer be guaranteed in the short to medium term.

Between 2019 and 2026, a total of over 65 lecture halls and more than 120 seminar rooms will be renovated. Each AV system is, in spite of standards, a room-integrated, technically complex system consisting of more than the equipment visible to the end users, such as beamers, microphones, visualizers, interactive displays, loudspeakers, cameras, computers or control panels. Behind this are also complex switching and conversion systems, and all components must be coordinated with management tools.

The future of audio/video systems at the UZH

The aim of the project "Renewal of audio/video systems" is to renew the AV systems existing at the UZH and to carry out the urgently required technology change from analogue to digital. The challenges of the project are enormous:

Lectures and events: It must remain possible to hold lectures and events, which means that the conversion work can only be carried out during the school holidays (8 weeks a year).
Availability of AV planners and installers: Since all educational institutions worldwide have to carry out the renewal, it is to be expected that AV planners and installers will have little or no capacity for accepting orders.
Age of existing AV systems: Today, system and equipment manufacturers rely entirely on digital and HD technology. The production of analogue components has already been discontinued by the manufacturers. Today, analogue AV equipment is hardly available on the market, which leads to a race against time.

Planning and execution

The project is divided into a project planning and an execution phase.

The project planning phase (June 2016 - December 2018) was successfully completed: The project management has drawn up the specifications in cooperation with the stakeholders concerned. The requirements specification includes the project and staging plan, a cost framework and the project organization. In this time frame, the refurbishment of the premises listed under phase 1 and 2.1. was carried out as a so-called pilot refurbishment.

Execution phase (January 2019 - 2026): The total duration of the execution phase of eight years results, among other things, from the maintenance of event operations and the availability of the AV planners and installers. The necessary object credit for the entire renewal project was discussed by the Board of the University in October and the Government Council in November 2018.

Renewal of the premises in the institutes

Concerning the renewal of the premises in the institutes (see stage plan below), the persons responsible for the Multimedia & E-Learning Services department of the Central Informatics Department contact the persons responsible at the institutes at least one year in advance for detailed planning.