Hybrid learning is not a technology problem
The conversations about hybrid learning in schools almost always become conversations about technology within the first five minutes. Which camera system, which microphone, which platform. The technology discussion is necessary but it comes third. The first two questions are about people and spaces: who is teaching, and what does the room actually need to do?
A Year 10 English class with a regular classroom teacher running hybrid sessions three times a week has completely different requirements from a TAFE lecturer delivering a technical course to a mixed cohort of on-site and remote students. The technology that serves one environment poorly serves the other adequately. Specifying the same system for both, because it appeared in a procurement catalogue, is how schools end up with AV equipment that sits unused or gets bypassed.
Masters Voice Technology has completed over 1,000 service and installation jobs in NSW Department of Education schools since January 2024. The pattern that emerges across those engagements is consistent: the schools with functioning hybrid learning environments all made the same decision early in the process. They designed around how the teacher actually works, not around what the technology can theoretically do.
The ease-of-use problem
Hybrid learning technology fails in schools for a predictable reason: teachers are not AV technicians, and they should not need to be. A system that requires a teacher to manage three separate interfaces — one for the camera, one for the conferencing platform, one for the room audio — before a lesson can start will be abandoned. The teacher will disable the remote participants and run the session as an in-room class, because that is the path of least resistance.
The standard we hold ourselves to on school installations is that a teacher should be able to walk into a room and start a hybrid session with a single action. One touch to join the scheduled meeting. Camera and microphone active. Display showing participants. Everything else automatic.
This requires that the control system, the camera, the room audio and the conferencing platform are integrated at the AV infrastructure level — not just plugged in and left to the teacher to coordinate. Q-SYS control with platform integration to Microsoft Teams or Google Meet handles this. Crestron Flex for Teams Rooms certified deployments handles it. A Logitech Rally Bar in a well-configured room handles it for smaller spaces. The choice of platform depends on the school’s IT environment. The principle of single-touch operation is non-negotiable regardless.
Camera and microphone placement for classrooms
The two most common mistakes in hybrid classroom installations are placing the camera at the back of the room and using a single conferencing microphone unit on the teacher’s desk.
A camera at the back of the classroom shows remote students a sea of the backs of heads and a tiny image of the teacher at the front. It also means the camera angle for any student who turns to address the class is their face in profile at best. Front-of-room placement, at or near display height, showing the teacher and the nearest rows of students, is almost always more useful for remote participants.
For rooms beyond approximately eight metres in depth, a single microphone unit on the teacher’s desk captures the teacher adequately and students at the front adequately. Students at the back are largely inaudible to remote participants. Distributed ceiling microphone systems — Shure MXA910 or similar — address this by providing even coverage across the room. The additional cost is significant, but in larger rooms it is the difference between a hybrid session that works and one that remote participants find unusable.
At Campbelltown Performing Arts High School, the school hall required a different approach again: a performing arts environment with a 500-seat capacity, variable acoustic conditions depending on staging configuration, and use cases ranging from school assemblies to full musical productions. The Q-SYS Core 8 Flex with Dante networking, Fohhn line array speakers and an appropriate microphone architecture was designed around those specific performance requirements — not adapted from a generic conference room specification.
Network infrastructure is an AV problem, not just an IT problem
Hybrid learning systems depend on network infrastructure, and the condition of network infrastructure in NSW schools varies significantly. A school with a well-maintained gigabit LAN and reliable NBN connection is a straightforward environment for a hybrid AV installation. A school with aging switching infrastructure, wireless access points that were installed a decade ago, and internet connectivity shared across all classroom devices simultaneously is a different problem.
AV integrators who do not assess network infrastructure before specifying hybrid learning technology are setting installations up to fail. Dropped video, audio glitching, platform disconnections during class sessions — these are almost always attributed to AV equipment failure when the actual cause is network performance.
Our standard process on NSW DoE installations includes a network assessment as part of the design phase, with specific recommendations to the school’s IT coordinator before any AV equipment is ordered. The AV system can only perform as well as the network it runs on.
Bell management and PA integration
An area specific to schools that often gets designed independently of the classroom AV is the school PA and bell management system. These are typically separate systems — the classroom AV installation and the school-wide PA — but they interact in ways that matter for hybrid learning.
A bell tone or PA announcement that cuts across a hybrid session mid-lesson is disruptive and, depending on microphone configuration, can be extremely loud for remote participants. Schools that are serious about hybrid learning outcomes need their PA and bell scheduling integrated with, or at minimum aware of, the classroom session infrastructure.
Masters Voice Technology has developed a Q-SYS-based bell management system specifically for this environment. Deployed across multiple NSW Catholic and government schools including several sites on the Mid North Coast, the system provides term-based automated scheduling, emergency paging with priority zone routing that can override or integrate with classroom sessions, and a staff interface that does not require technical knowledge to operate. Remote configuration capability means schedule updates can be pushed across multiple sites simultaneously without an on-site visit.
What a good brief looks like
Before specifying any hybrid learning AV equipment, the following questions need answered answers:
Which conferencing platform is the school standardised on, and is the IT infrastructure able to support it reliably across simultaneous classroom sessions? What is the maximum room size requiring hybrid capability, and what is the typical class size? Are there performing arts or specialist spaces with different acoustic requirements? What is the technical skill level of teaching staff who will operate the systems? Is there a current PA and bell management system, and does it need to integrate with the new AV?
The answers determine the system architecture. Equipment selection follows from that. If you are a NSW school planning a hybrid learning AV project and want a preliminary assessment, contact Masters Voice Technology on 1300 804 320 or via the DoE Maintenance and Support Panel.
