Before the InfoComm show floor opened, Frank Alaimo, manager of Classroom Technology Services-University of Nevada Las Vegas, Joseph Chrobak, senior AV/IT systems specialist-University of Nevada Las Vegas, Pulasthi "P.T." Thennakoon, immersive learning supervisor-University of Nevada Las Vegas, and an array of UNLV students and staff, took higher education AV/IT specialists on a tour of the latest technological advancements on the UNLV campus. This year, the UNLV Dreamscape Learn (VR Experience) and Lied Library Technology Spaces tour took attendees into a world of immersive education and engaging storytelling.
[We Saw Phish at The Sphere, and the Video Content Had Us Bouncing around the Room]
The highlight of the tour was the 4,000-square-foot VR space, Dreamscape Learn immersive classroom with a free-roam entertainment space next door. The entire area includes a welcoming, warm space with couches and chairs for students to work and discuss the technology available to explore. Next door, Dreamscape Learn, a16-seat immersive classroom, has three specific VR experiences for students; there is the tour of the Hagia Sofia for art history students, a 12-module biology course, and an environmental starting pack exploring such treasures as the Colorado River, the Coliseum, and a trip to the moon, among others.
Each seat is equipped with a VIVE headset designed with noise-canceling headphones to hear all the details of the virtual tour or module. InfoComm attendees were guided on a 20-minute tour of the Hagia Sofia via the headset, and each seat was equipped with a ButtKicker advanced audio haptic transducer so every guest can feel each experience whether it’s a rumble or a rev. Each station is also donned with a Thrustmaster joystick for the biology classes.
Next door is a Free-Roam Pod. This was designed for six students featuring content that, per UNLV, adapts the creativity from movie and theme park industries for instructional purposes. The focus here is to have fun while learning, more focused on adventure and entertainment as well as engineering and design. Six VIVE headsets are used in a red-lit studio where the floor rumbles, fans surround the area to emulate wind, and what the UNLV team refers to as “props” to emulate torches, flashlights, and other things to hold on to. VICON PULSAR head and feet sensors bring guests completely into the action, with cameras tracking the sensors throughout the area.
The tour then makes a stop in the Immersive Learning Lab. While Dreamscape creates the content for the immersive classroom, the Immersive Learning Lab was built-in house and run by students. It is still young, roughly four months old, the room provides seven different “tools” that allow students to virtually engage a wide array of disciplines. From designing buildings with VR modeling tools, to creating 3D designs and sketches in an immersive virtual space, to exploring the human anatomy in 3D models of the human body, 25 PICO 4 Ultra headsets, 12 Meta Quest 3 headsets, a pair of whisper rooms, and 23 computers empower students with more freedom than the Dreamscape Learn to explore and create in a virtual space.
The tour concluded in the Amargosa Room and Lied Library Spaces, such as a podcast studio, production area, and makerspace. The Amargosa Room is built on UNLV’s game-changing RebelFlex platform with Sennheiser in-ceiling speakers and Sony PTZ cameras tracking the action. It is a dual-display presentation area used for symposiums and guest speakers, so there are no classes inside. A pair of 98-inch displays surround the presenter with two smaller displays hung from the ceiling, facing the presenter so they never have to turn around. There are eight huddle stations, each equipped with its own smaller display showcasing what is on the main wall and removable workstations for flexibility. This room takes RebelFlex to a whole new level, as Alaimo referred to it as “RebelFlex on steroids.”
UNLV continues to reimagine what education can look like in the new millennium. Now, the department is reimagining how it feels by taking students and guests into an immersive, virtual realm.
