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Arial video of the college campus.

The University of Southern California in Los Angeles set out to create a space to provide students and staff with COMMERCIAL-GRADE, INTERACTIVE MULTI-MEDIA TECHNOLOGY that would unleash CREATIVE ENERGY of their students.

The goal was to enable students to EVOLVE ARTISTICALLY, CREATE PROFESSIONAL QUALITY VIDEOS and absolutely intimidate the competition, so they DOMINATE IN ESPORTS EVENTS.

Joe Way, PhD (Director, Learning Environments):

The digital Creative Lab fits into the overall strategy of USC because we knew our students needed a space to allow their discipline to come to life. It started as just an Esports arena, an opportunity to give some gaming to our students. But we really quickly recognized that it touched so many other disciplines, not just the gaming students, but those from computer science, those from film, live production, music production and digital creation could all come together and collaborate in one location. And that's how this came about.

Multiple students sitting at computer stations in a computer lab.

Hunter Stacey (AV/IT Projects Facilitator):

With this space. We incorporated things such as video production, video creation, podcast and 3D printing, as well as NFTS.

Video technology lab with multiple screens. A room with students and podcast equipment. Several 3-D printers. Several NFTs.

Raj Singh (Head of Learning, Technologies Design and Engineering):

An NFT. What it stands for is non fungible token. Pretty much it's a representation. It's a virtual representation of artwork and that cannot be replicated or sold without the consent of the artist or the person who created it.

Lex Evans (CX Designer, Learning Environments):

We put ourselves in the shoes of our customers AKA, the students. When walking into the space, the solution is to have the best quality digital signage.

Raj Singh:

So all these things when we are looking at the key thing that we wanted to do was understand how can we partner with a company that can bring that vision to life. So, in our gaming lab, we wanted to kind of signature statement piece and that's where we looked at Sharp NEC and to see what they can do to partner with us in providing a direct view LED. So we wanted a very seamless like background where colors were expressed correctly, where gaming and different events that happen could be shown in proper manner. And given the justice that it deserves. Same thing applies to displays and conference monitors that we have. Those we also are using Sharp NEC products as well for that.

A gaming lab with a large wall sized NEC display. Gaming and computer labs with multiple displays.

Chi Hang Lo (AV/IT, Solutions Architect):

USC we standardize Sharp NEC product as our display and monitor solutions. So when we architect this space, we, we need a solution can help us to display all the creative content.

Joe Way:

We knew that we wanted not just a wow factor but high quality throughout the entire space.

Lex Evans:

So we've specifically designed the digital Creative Lab to be an evergreen space. This means it's a living breathing space that will evolve with the technology.

Chi Hang Lo:

But you know, technology goes too quick, right? So I expect that in a couple of years, we will resort to greater LED technology again because we're not only looking at what we have right now, we're also looking at how to respond to, to the educational need. That's this very unique for, for the university architect to design the technology.

Students working on video equipment with LED monitors.

Joe Way:

I'm very excited to see where the space could be in five years. We've created a place for our students to come, be creative and allow them to drive the vision as new technologies develop, we'll continue to introduce them as they see fit.