Lightware’s Taurus UCX and Smart Dock signal management solutions were selected for a huge, six-year AV upgrade of 600 meeting rooms and 150 classrooms at the Eindhoven University of Technology, a research institute in the Netherlands specialising in engineering, science and technology.
The university’s sprawling site spans 25 buildings, consisting of various meeting rooms and classrooms. Over the past few months, Lightware has upgraded four buildings consisting of 16 classrooms and over 80 meeting rooms. Each was fitted with a Taurus UCX-4×3, whilst the meeting rooms all feature a Smart Dock (Taurus UCX 1×1).
Working with integration partners, Kinly, Presentation Partner and Fidato, the university began the task of transforming its rooms in November 2024. This summer, the university is looking forward to renovating a further 110 meeting rooms. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2030.
The Taurus UCX-4×3 universal matrix switcher are designed to allow lecturers to connect their own laptops and use the available assets of the room, including HDMI displays, cameras and other USB peripherals. The USB-C connectivity is designed to offer a simplified transmission of 4K video, audio, control signals and power.
Ruud Vercoulen, project manager at Eindhoven University of Technology, said: “Our Microsoft Teams Rooms, based on Cisco with dual screens will be fitted with a Taurus UCX-1×1, allowing users to come in, touch one button and be ready to join the meeting, without even needing to connect their laptop.
“In our BYOD meeting rooms, which use Sennheiser Teams Connect bars, users will be able to present to the screen by connecting their laptop via USB-C, whilst also making use of the room’s peripherals.”
He added: “Previously, our rooms featured a combination of touchscreens and meeting gear, which required one HDMI cable and multiple USBs for different peripherals. The team would receive many IT requests reporting broken equipment, but it was usually the case that users were not using the correct cables. To minimise issues and messy wires, we worked with the IT department to upgrade everyone’s laptops to a USB-C standard. Changing connectivity to a single cable, along with Lightware’s plug and go products, has revolutionised the everyday user experience here at the university.”
