CTOUCH, Barco and Kinly built a unique virtual training room at the CTOUCH office in Eindhoven, Netherlands. This is a unique look into what could become a new way to meet face-to-face without being in the same room.

“At this moment, there are only a couple of these training facilities in the Netherlands,” said CTOUCH CEO Remmelt van der Woude. “What makes our virtual training room unique is that we’ve been able to integrate our touch screens in it. This adds an extra dimension to an interactive training, since everybody in the session is able to see what’s happening on the touch screen, in real-time. With Barco’s weConnect SaaS solution as a backbone and the expertise that Kinly provided in facilitating the complete solution, I’m happy that we enable ourselves and other companies to effectively train, teach and coach teams in these challenging times.”

The demand for remote working and blended learning solutions has increased tremendously in the past few months due to the COVID-19 outbreak. With many companies currently preparing for a new way of working, another challenge arises: how to bring interactivity and engagement into a virtual classroom environment?

“As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, we see increased demand from our customers — in education, government and companies for blended learning”, said Robert Blaas, marketing director Kinly Benelux. “However, what is missing in many of the solutions for blended learning are interactivity and engagement. Matters that are important in training and lectures. Together with Barco and CTOUCH, we have built a solution for remote education and training where interactivity and engagement are paramount. We believe that solutions such as the virtual classroom should not only be used today as an emergency solution but should also contribute to the innovation of education and training.”

The virtual classroom is equipped with seven wall-mounted 55-inch Christie UHD551-L LCD displays with 4K native resolution. The attendees can observe the session from three different angles by manually choosing between the front view Logitech MeetUp camera, from the top view Panasonic AW-HE60 camera or a side angle provided by another AW-HE60 camera. The virtual classroom offers space for more than one host and is equipped with special lighting to make sure that presenters and products are visible to the virtual audience.

Barco’s integrated weConnect system also helps to build a virtual classroom starting from 6 to 112 participants that all are visible via the displays on the wall, so that the presenter can make actual eye contact. The virtual training room at CTOUCH has a capacity of up to 24 visible participants. A data overlay gives possibilities to add various ways of participation, such as raised hands, polls or quizzes to have maximum engagement.

“Our virtual classroom is a purpose-built platform for teaching and learning. It is co-created with learning technologists from universities, business schools and corporate training centers,” said Ellen Van de Woestijne, segment marketing director from Barco. “We’ve already rolled out this concept in various places in education and at corporate training centers. We see a lot of value for business environments. With CTOUCH and Kinly we have excellent partners to make sure the user experience and the level of engagement is on-par with live, face-to-face classes.”