The University of Vermont Keeps Med School In Session with Stem

Customer Profile

Founded in 1822, The Larner College of Medicine is the seventh oldest medical school in the nation. With the September 2016 historic gift announcement from Dr. Robert Larner and his wife, Helen, the college will continue building a medical education that is second to none. Recent initiatives include digitizing the entire curriculum, creating new innovative classrooms that facilitate active learning, building an enhanced simulation center to help students learn clinical skills, and the recruitment of an endowed Professor of Medical Education to lead the Teaching Academy.

Challenge

As the Fall 2020 semester quickly approached, the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont knew they needed to make a quick transition to socially distanced learning environments in order for class to stay in session. “We were looking for a microphone that we could put in the room and that could capture everyone and everything that was going on in the room,” said Bruce Kimball, AV systems engineer at UVM. Kimball explained that “when COVID hit I knew that we had to find something to enable video conferencing in our other rooms. When I couldn’t find anything in stock I just directly reached out to Stem and ordered all of the inventory B&H had in stock.”

Solution

Bruce Kimball and his colleague Jason Towsley, AV Programmer and Technician, decided to outfit nine of their conference rooms with Stem Wall’s and Hubs. “The first time we tried Stem out I had Jason stand at the back of the room so he’s more than 16 feet away from the microphone, and he turns his back and is whispering and I could hear every word he said,” Kimball explained. “That was stunning to me because when I turned around I looked at my distance from the microphone and at that distance, I’d typically have to raise my voice if he were in the room with me but with Stem Wall in the room, I could just speak naturally,” said Towsley.

 

Advantages

“The students and teachers don’t even have to think about the audio and it’s so much nicer because if you’re in that room with a Stem Wall, you know that you'll be heard. It has made the process much more seamless for our users.”

Jason Towsley, AV Programmer / Technician

In implementing Stem Wall and Hub devices in their small conference room they have been able to create an experience for their users where, “the students and teachers don’t even have to think about the audio and it’s so much nicer because if you’re in that room with a Stem Wall, you know that you'll be heard. It has made the process much more seamless for our users,” said Towsley.

Gear List

	Model Number	Quantity	Description
	Stem Wall	9	With 15 beamforming microphones plus two full-range speakers and subwoofers, the Stem Wall can be wall mounted in any room so everyone in your meetings can hear and be heard.
	Stem Hub Express	9	Hub Express connects multiple Stem devices through your network and acts as the central communication device for the audio in a room. It comes with multiple connectivity options including USB Type B, SIP, and external analog speakers.