The University of Southern California (USC) is one of the oldest private research universities in the United States. Founded in 1880, USC is the largest private employer in Los Angeles and as of the 2018-2019 school year, had nearly 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students. USC was ranked 21st in U.S. News and World Report’s 2018 annual ranking of national universities.
The University of Southern California – Marshall School of Business began as the College of Commerce and Business Administration in 1920. The USC – Marshall School of Business is at the cusp of innovation and excellence in business. Its Entrepreneurship Program was the first of its kind when it launched back in 1972, and they are the first major business school to achieve gender parity. Fertitta Hall is a 102,000-square-foot student collaboration, instructional and entrepreneurial space for USC – Marshall School of Business students.
Spinitar worked with USC leaders, quickly proposing a budget and timeline that also integrated with the timeline provided by USC’s design partner, MCH. The Spinitar team worked closely with MCH to develop innovative spaces that nurtured creativity and collaboration among students and professors.
Fertitta Hall is designed to be much more than a university building where students attend class and quickly retreat back to their dorms. Instead, it is a core addition to the Marshall School of Business, where students attend class, collaborate in small and large groups, prepare and practice presentations, study and more. The building’s design was carefully fashioned and implemented by Spinitar to deliver an exceptional experience for students, faculty, and the rest of the Trojan family.
This new expansion of the business school was a high-profile and critical project. USC required custom work throughout the building, including customized racks with specific finishes and sizing, custom mountings for the digital signage near each of the six (6) elevators in the building, special consideration for AV in each type of room, and more. The focal point of AV design and customization is shown in the lobby through Samsung displays that have been mounted, angled, and oriented into a showpiece that features USC’s best and brightest alumni.
The ELC, in particular, was an extremely unique component of the Fertitta Hall project requiring a significant amount of planning and customization to achieve USC’s desired functionality. The ELC is one large room that can be partitioned into many smaller rooms. To facilitate collaborative opportunities and learning among entrepreneurial students, each room within the ELC needed its own AV system; however, simultaneously needed the ability to combine with AV in other rooms. Our engineers carefully crafted a technical plan that delivered state-of-the-art technology to be used independently or combined, depending on the specific needs of students and faculty.
Classrooms
With both standard and active-learning classrooms, Fertitta Hall classrooms required technology including dual projectors, audio/video/content recording and capture systems, microphones, cameras, in addition to multiple displays and projectors in the active-learning classrooms.
Lecture Halls
With a half-moon shape and using tiered seating, traditional lecture halls needed much more than old-school technology to deliver an immersive learning experience for students. Technology included audio/video/content recording and capture systems, three projectors and dropdown screens, plus front and back cameras from Panasonic.
Conference Rooms
To meet the diverse needs of its users and events, Fertitta Hall conference rooms needed technology that worked with a variety of complementary tech and users. Technology in the conference rooms includes flat panel displays, control systems with table cable cubbies for AV/IT/Power connectivity, speakers embedded in the ceiling, and a central AMX touch panel control.
Breakout Rooms
The breakout rooms at Fertitta Hall embody the spirit of collaboration and innovation of both Fertitta Hall and USC – Marshall School of Business. As such, each breakout room is separated by glass windows, which also showcase each room’s 48” HD flat panel with built-in speakers for presentations.
Breakout rooms also have Samsung Galaxy tablets with an easy-to-use scheduling system for students to determine room availability (and to reserve a space). Spinitar both provided the Samsung Galaxy tablets and created custom mounting brackets for the tablet in each of the fifty-one (51) breakout rooms. Custom wall plates in each room allow students to plug in their devices using HDMI and USB ports, and each display has its own computer in case students did not bring their own devices.
Special consideration from our engineers was given to coordinate technology for the breakout rooms while subsequently ensuring there was enough bandwidth within the network to support such robust infrastructure.
