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HARDWARE

Credit: Morning Brew Design, Photos: Tom Werner/Getty Images, Old Dominion University, Dwayne Smith

Virginia’s Old Dominion University is registering something new for class.

About 20 rooms across ODU’s campus feature AI-enabled cameras that autonomously track in on professors; screens that display automatic transcription; a giant digital board for instructors; and a dedicated space to teach live classes over Zoom.

Behind all that cutting-edge technology is a familiar networking component: each room has a brand-new network switch, a pizza-box-sized device inside its audio/visual (AV) closet.

A digital transformation effort, it turns out, requires a lot of planning with the networking team—and sometimes a special delivery of a dozen or more tech components.

“Be ready.” That’s never the most assuring phrase for a network pro to hear, but that’s what Dwayne Smith, executive director of digital integration environments at ODU, told his networking staff over the summer, following a mandate to kick off the company’s “Forward-Focused Digital Transformation” project.

Time to switch.—BH

☕ (New) Old Dominion