The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)—which was established in 1953 and committed to growing aviation through participation and education—recently unveiled a new Education Center at their Oshkosh, WI headquarters. The two-story, 30,000-square-foot facility is designed to further develop aviation education and training. With just six months to deliver a fully functioning AV-over-IP system, Arrow AV Group—a family-owned provider and integrator of audiovisual presentation, assisted listening, theatrical lighting, and control technologies—turned to Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series.
The $6.2 million project features an innovative Pilot Proficiency Center, a hands-on Youth Education Center and the EAA Conference Center. The Pilot Proficiency Center features a skill-building and training center featuring flight simulators for general aviation pilots. The 15,000-square-foot Young Education Center provides youths, parents and teachers access to interactive and project-based activities that inspire and nurture the next generation of aviators. The corporate events space features small conference rooms and a larger events space that can be configured based on the size and requirements for private events. These mixed-use facilities allow individuals and groups to experience EAA’s resources everyday of the year.
Arrow AV Group set out to design for both educational and entertainment spaces within the new facility. Arrow AV Group wanted to capitalize on system flexibility to enable EAA to utilize the Education Center for private corporate events. Most importantly, Arrow AV Group was on a time crunch to deliver the system ahead of the world’s largest airshow, AirVenture.
“The EAA came to us with a short-timeline request to outfit their new educational facility with a full state-of-the-art audio and video system,” said Shaun McClure, CTS, CQD, MTA, systems engineer for Arrow AV Group. “They wanted to showcase the new multi-use facility at their annual summer airshow in 2022. With members and guests worldwide attending, we kicked into overdrive to provide a high-quality and easy-to-use integrated system.
“Our initial design included all AV-over-IP components to ensure future compatibility and ease of infrastructure installation. After approval of the project, however, we learned that the manufacturer that we had designed the project with could not meet the project timelines. We reached out to our contacts at Visionary and they were able to help us redesign the system with available components without otherwise compromising our design.”
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Arrow AV Group integrated 21 PacketAV DuetE-2 Encoders and 21 PacketAV D4100 Decoders across all video displays at EAA’s Education Center. In the Youth Education Center, the PacketAV Matrix Series is distributing video to three Panasonic laser projectors, which enables presentations for large groups or three, smaller breakout rooms. Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series enables simplified video connectivity in two small conference rooms and a larger events space committed to growing aviation through participation and education—all part of the EAA Conference Center. Notably, broadcasting and streaming of video is possible from any room in the new facility, including from the wind tunnel, to accommodate overflow viewing. The new functionality enables EAA to live stream the demonstrations and lessons to classrooms and learning environments throughout the country.
Accommodating tight deadlines and back-ordered equipment, Arrow AV Group was able to execute a functioning system in time for EAA’s biggest event of the year: AirVenture. “Visionary’s quick actions, along with our company’s ability to be nimble and change plans and direction quickly, allowed the project to come in on time and ‘Wow’ the customer and the general public attending the airshow,” explained McClure. “We’re glad to see that something we designed will be used to educate future generations in aeronautics.”
