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New Collaborative Technology Comes to Clough Auditoriums

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Catchbox, like the name implies, is a soft square box that contains a wireless microphone. Catchbox is used for audience engagement in classrooms without the need for a standalone microphone. In fact, if you saw the SGA candidates’ debate on Tuesday, March 7, you witnessed the first use of the Catchbox on Tech’s campus.

Using Catchbox takes away the need for students to get out of their seat to communicate to their teacher and fellow Yellow Jackets. With Catchbox, the microphone comes to you with just a toss. “Our intent in purchasing Catchbox is to increase audience participation and collaboration among students and faculty,” says Charlie Wright, IT Support Professional Manager with the Office of Information Technology’s Audio Visual (AV) Services. “We hope to set up two Catchboxes in each Clough auditorium, and provide it to other large auditorium-style spaces on campus.”

While attending a conference for Audio Visual services, Wright saw Catchbox in use and knew it would benefit Tech.  “For example, time constraints put restrictions on how long the presenter has to take audience questions, with much of this time used to getting a microphone to the audience or asking for a line to form behind a microphone stand. Catchbox solves this problem because it is a throwable microphone and therefore actively engages the audience.”

To bring Catchbox to campus, AV Services had to find a vendor willing to offer it, and then seek approval from Georgia Tech Licensing to place the Tech branding on the Catchbox. This included adding the Tech colors and name, plus the Campanile. Lia Namirr, Client Support Specialist with AV Services, oversaw the process.

Once the microphone arrived, it was tested to ensure compatibility with the Clough Auditorium technology and then it was released to the Clough Auditorium classes.

In the future, AV Services plans to dedicate two Catchboxes to each Clough Auditorium. The tool is just one of the projects the AV Services team is working on rolling out to improve the classroom experience.

If you wish to reserve Catchbox for an event in Clough Commons, please visit the Clough Commons event page www.clough.gatech.edu/events.html

For more information on reserving or purchasing Catchbox for your classroom, contact Lia Namir at Lia@oit.gatech.edu.

Portions of this article appeared in the March 10 issue of the Technique.

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Lorrie Burroughs
  • Created:03/28/2017
  • Modified By:Rachael Pocklington
  • Modified:03/29/2017