University of Hong Kong Implements Videoconferencing for Communications and Collaboration
The Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is home to a new videoconferencing solution that provides law students with a more interactive learning experience and lets them collaborate with overseas students in real-time.
The Faculty of Law recently moved to HKU's new Centennial Campus. The move provided the department with the opportunity to re-evaluate its communications technology and consider how videoconferencing could enhance the learning experience. HKU evaluated a variety of potential solutions for stability, flexibility, quality, and interoperability, and ultimately chose Polycom's RealPresence Platform to connect its video-enabled classrooms.
The RealPresence Platform implementation at HKU consists of the Polycom RealPresence Room Solutions HDX 8000 with Polycom EagleEye Director cameras and Polycom HDX ceiling microphones to deliver secure, high-definition video collaboration to its classrooms and lecture halls. The HDX series has camera-tracking technology, which automatically locates and focuses the camera on the person who is speaking, and the microphones use noise-reduction technology to cut down background noise.
The installation was completed in October. Since then, law students at the university have been participating in simultaneous learning experiences, real-time idea exchanges, and knowledge sharing with legal professionals and experts from around the world. Faculty have also been using the technology as part of the recruitment process.
"Polycom RealPresence video solutions have also been useful for us outside the classroom," said Professor Johannes Chan, Dean of the Faculty of Law at HKU, in a prepared statement. "We have been able to streamline our admission and recruitment processes, as well as internal meetings, and have the ability to collaborate across geographic boundaries. We can now conduct interviews with international candidates face-to-face in real-time and meetings are now more effective with the camera tracking feature that enables us to easily focus on speakers."
The University of Hong Kong is a research-led comprehensive university serving more than 11,000 undergraduate students and roughly the same number of graduate students. It offers degrees in law, architecture, arts, business and economics, dentistry, education, engineering, medicine, science, and social sciences. Most classes are conducted in English.
Further information about Polycom RealPresence video solutions can be found at polycom.com.
About the Author
Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].