Baylor University Hurd Welcome Center

Experiential technology opens a welcoming ‘front door’ to the next generation of university scholars.

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INTRODUCTION

The Hurd Welcome Center provides a technology-rich ‘front door’ to Baylor University’s campus and serves as an inspirational community space designed to make a lasting impression on current and prospective students, staff, alumni and visitors.

Inside the Center, four 96-foot-high columns provide a symbolic link to the original University site while welcoming the next generation of ‘Bears’ with immersive, interactive experiential technology. Inside the columns, videos and custom content depict Baylor’s four foundational themes – Reflect, Connect, Aspire and Amplify – and communicate what life at Baylor can offer.

Electrosonic collaborated with DetaiLED™, HOLOPLOT, Populous, Smart Monkeys, AV Stumpfl (Pixera), RLMG and Xibitz, Inc taking responsibility for creating, installing and seamlessly integrating custom LED solutions and specialty projection.

OVERVIEW

Visitors enter four cylindrical columns where video, audio, lighting and interactivity create a technology-rich immersive environment.

In the Reflect Column, mirrors on each wall create a kaleidoscope effect, while a rear-projection screen, 25 feet above, plays videos that showcase scenes around campus. As content changes, LED light strips shift in color.

The Connect Column offers an immersive experience as beam-forming audio and a 360-degree 12-million-pixel LED wall showcase different student experiences.

The Aspire Column provides a unique, personalized experience. With a simple QR code scan, students can create text and witness their name and aspirations illuminated on an LED wall that gracefully spirals up 72 feet through the interior.

The Amplify Column showcases how Baylor alumni are advancing the university's global impact. A half-globe, 3-million-pixel LED screen presents Baylor graduates sharing their impactful journeys and experiences.

The content can be customized to meet the needs of prospective students, game-day guests and special events on campus. For example, the Aspire Column transforms on game days to showcase the lyrics of the Baylor Fight Song. All columns have the flexibility to illuminate with distinct colors for various special occasions.

CHALLENGE

The University sought to create an immersive educational environment with the columns, but faced the challenge of integrating specialty LED, video, audio and lighting into towering cylindrical spaces with restricted access.

The ambitious installation required a unified control solution capable of overseeing a wide array of technologies on a single platform. This system needed to facilitate the playback and dynamic adjustment of custom media and content to align with various operational modes.

SOLUTION

Electrosonic partnered with design and implementation teams to design, install and seamlessly integrate show systems. This involved demanding projection setups, meticulous installation within compact spaces and custom LED solutions for all four columns.

Electrosonic used Smart Monkeys’ virtualized ISAAC platform to provide a consolidated, reliable means of controlling show-critical systems while Q-SYS Core Nano manages audio processing and distribution and Pixera server's playback content.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Reflect, Connect, Aspire and Amplify columns are integral to the Welcome Center, embodying the University’s vision of creating an open door to the campus. Through interactive, immersive technology, they resonate with Generation Z students who prioritize experiential learning.

The technology enables prospective students to immerse themselves in Baylor’s core values and inspires them to set and record their own aspirations as future ‘Bears’.

Project Details

Client

Baylor University

Location

Waco, Texas

Size

136,000 sq.ft

Partners

DetaiLED™, HOLOPLOT, Populous, Pixera, RLMG, Smart Monkeys, Xibitz

Services

Build & System Integration

Immersive Technologies

Specialty Projection

Audio & Acoustics

Content Distribution

Command & Control Rooms

Remote Monitoring & Repair

Installation & Integration

When you walk into this building, it’s not a traditional visitor center, it’s not a traditional alumni center. It’s all about experiences and really creating a canvas for people to write their own Baylor story, to create their own narrative to the facility.

Jason Cook

Baylor Vice President for Marketing and Communications