Magdalen College, Oxford University

Oxford-based Isis AV has been servicing the vast – and varied - needs of the city’s famous University for the past six years and have often drawn on Christie’s wide-ranging product portfolio to meet such a wide range of projection requirements. Prime recent examples range from the historic Magdalen College’s Grove Auditorium to seminar rooms and the Department of Zoology.

At Magdalen, Isis AV was tasked with replacing the existing projector and the control system in the 15th century college’s principal 160-seat lecture theatre last year. The specialists turned to a Christie L2K1000 3LCD 10,000 ANSI lumens projector, fitted with 2.6 - 3.5:1 lens in order to fire the image over a distance of approximately 15.5 meters onto a 5-metre wide screen.

The criteria laid down included ease-of-use for the control system and good quality image for the projection – so that it would be suitable for presenting lectures and conferences, as well as fit for use by their film club. Source inputs include PC's, laptops and DVD, with a BluRay player scheduled to be added in the future.

They decided on the projector choice after seeing a demonstration of various alternatives and a consultation with Audio Visual Material (AVM), Christie’s exclusive UK distributor for business projection, display and processing products.

Isis AV managing director, Richard Hopper, said, “The main challenge we faced was integrating with very old legacy equipment, combined with a lack of system documentation.”

The installation drew praise from Catherine Hughes, Magdalen College Conference & Accommodation Manager, “We have been pleased with the high quality of the image, meeting the requirements of our clients who range from bio-medical engineers, orthopedic surgeons to fine artists,” she commented.

From the challenge of listed buildings to lecture halls

Around the same time as the Magdalen College contract, Isis AV was tasked with equipping the Grade II-listed Examination Hall in the centre of Oxford. Although used principally for university exams the Hall’s two rooms also host conferences and exhibitions.

For each space, the integrators specified a Christie LX1200 12000 ANSI lumens projector — one fitted with a 1.5-2.0:1 lens, the other with a 2.0-2.6:1 lens — as these were considered the most cost-effective solution for delivering high-grade PC images.

Fixing these to the high ceilings in the buildings, requiring scaffolding tower access and lifting equipment, presented a number of challenges — not least being that the Isis AV team was working in a listed building.

“We based our projector decision on a demo set up by Chris Brittan of AVM,” confirmed Richard Hopper, “and we opted for the twin lamp device as being more efficient. These achieve the solution required and our clients are delighted.”

Most recently Isis AV has been on site at St. Antony’s College, providing AV infrastructure for a room that has been has been completely refurbished and repurposed as a new seminar room. This time the specialists opted for a Christie LW401 widescreen WXGA projector. “We believed this would offer excellent quality / performance at this price point,” stated Hopper. “Had the budget been unlimited we would have suggested HD or WUXGA, but for the requirements and budget, 4000 ANSI WXGA is perfectly adequate in this application. The warranty provided by AVM is excellent, and an excellent zoom lens helped with the install.”

Other work undertaken within the last 18 months for various University departments includes the Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Zoology. In the first Isis AV provided a pair of Christie LX700 (7000 ANSI lumens) projectors, using the existing lens from the previous Christie devices. “These had reached end of life and the difference in image quality is now significant,” he reports.

In the newly commissioned Biochemistry department’s lecture theatre Isis AV have provided a DHD550-G (5500 lumen) projector, and modifications to existing gear, and at the Department of Zoology a Christie LW555 (5500 lumen) ceiling mounted projector has been installed in two of the lecture theatres.

Richard Hopper summarized the benfits; "Christie projectors offer an excellent quality product at a realistic price point. This combined with superb reliability and warranty makes Christie projectors a very strong performer for our clients."