Cowey Rooms

The Cowey Rooms can be used joint, as a large seminar room, or split, as two smaller meeting rooms, using the dividing wall between them.

At the front of Cowey Room 1 there is a lectern and audio/visual rack. The lectern provides a power point, ethernet socket and fall-back HDMI socket (see below). Please do not connect high-wattage devices to the lectern power point - it cannot provide more than 3A (approximately 690W). Please do not move the lectern - doing so may damage the cables connecting it to the floor. If you do not require the lectern, then please contact admin@oxcin.ox.ac.uk to arrange for it to be temporarily removed.

Tables with integral power strips and chairs are available in the Cowey Room 2 cupboards. The floor boxes provide power and ethernet for the tables. Please ensure that all cable access flaps are opened when the floor boxes are used to prevent damage to cables. If you need to plug in an all-in-one charger/mains plug, then you should remove the floor box cover to prevent damage to your charger. Please do not connect high-wattage devices to the power points - they cannot provide more than 3A (approximately 80W).

Using the Cowey Rooms joint

When the rooms are joint, the screens are mirrored and controlled by the Creston panel in Cowey Room 1. If the system is off, use the power button on this panel to start the hardware. If the system is on but the screens are blank, then touch the reselect your preferred input to wake the screens. The Crestron panel will show several input icons for you to select from. Under normal circumstances select the Teams device option and then use the Microsoft Teams device to present/broadcast your meeting. If you invited the rooms to the meeting in advance, then the meeting should appear in the list on the left of the Teams control panel. Select the meeting to start the session. For ad-hoc meetings, either add the room oxcin-cowey1@ndcn.ox.ac.uk to the meeting or select 'Use Room Audio' on your device and choose Cowey 1 from the listed rooms. See the Teams Room documentation for more details. If you are presenting a video clip in the Teams session, you should use the ethernet socket, rather than relying on WiFi, to ensure that your video plays back smoothly on in the in-room screens.

There are two cameras which can be switched between by touching the camera icon during a Teams meeting/at the meeting join screen and selecting from the list of cameras provided - 'Speaker' is the ceiling mounted camera and 'Room' is the wall mounted unit. When hosting a seminar, you should use the ceiling mounted camera (especially if recording the session), while if hosting a meeting, you should use the wall mounted camera (and you should not record the session). Under most circumstances the University's policy on video/audio recording does not allow the recording of meetings and stipulates that the recording of audience members should be avoided.

Using the Cowey Rooms split

Each of the Cowey Rooms can be laid out as a board room, teaching or small lecture room. Training on how to split the rooms can be obtained from the admin@oxcin.ox.ac.uk team. When one room is used split, it is imperative that you disable the microphones and speakers in the other room. Details on how to do this will be provided during your training session.

Cowey Room 1

In Cowey Room 1, you can turn on the screen using the Crestron control panel located on the AV cabinet or - if the system is off- use the power button on this panel to start the hardware.

If the system is on but the screen is blank, then touch the reselect your preferred input to wake the screen. The Crestron panel will show several input icons for you to select from. Under normal circumstances select the Teams device option and then use the Microsoft Teams device to present/broadcast your meeting. If you invited the room to the meeting in advance, then the meeting should appear in the list on the left of the Teams control panel. Select the meeting to start the session. For ad-hoc meetings, either add the room oxcin-cowey1@ndcn.ox.ac.uk to the meeting or select 'Use Room Audio' on your device and choose Cowey 1 from the listed rooms. See the Teams Room documentation for more details. If you are presenting a video clip in the Teams session, you should use the ethernet socket, rather than relying on WiFi, to ensure that your video plays back smoothly on in the in-room screens.

Cowey Room 1 has two cameras which can be switched between by touching the camera icon during a Teams meeting/at the meeting join screen and selecting from the list of cameras provided - 'Speaker' is the ceiling mounted camera and 'Room' is the wall mounted unit. When hosting a seminar, you should use the ceiling mounted camera (especially if recording the session), while if hosting a meeting, you should use the wall mounted camera (and you should not record the session). Under most circumstances the University's policy on video/audio recording does not allow the recording of meetings and stipulates that the recording of audience members should be avoided.

Cowey Room 2

In Cowey Room 2, video inputs to the screen are controlled by the Crestron panel on the wall, and the Teams control panel is located on the small black shelf to the left of the screen.

If the system is on but the screen is blank, then touch the reselect your preferred input to wake the screen. The Crestron panel will show several input icons for you to select from. Under normal circumstances select the Teams device option and then use the Microsoft Teams device to present/broadcast your meeting. If you invited the room to the meeting in advance, then the meeting should appear in the list on the left of the Teams control panel. Select the meeting to start the session. For ad-hoc meetings, either add the room oxcin-cowey2@ndcn.ox.ac.uk to the meeting or select 'Use Room Audio' on your device and choose Cowey 2 from the listed rooms. See the Teams Room documentation for more details. If you are presenting a video clip in the Teams session, you should use the ethernet socket, rather than relying on WiFi, to ensure that your video plays back smoothly on in the in-room screens.

Cowey Room 2 has a wall mounted camera unit. When using this camera, you should not record the session. Under most circumstances the University's policy on video/audio recording does not allow the recording of meetings and stipulates that the recording of audience members should be avoided.

Alternative joining options

HDMI/USB cables (Cowey Room 1, Cowey Room 2 or joint)

Where you are unable to use Teams, for example because you are taking part in an externally organised Zoom meeting, then there are HDMI and USB cables on the lectern in Cowey Room 1 or coiled by the screen in Cowey Room 2 (to use these, you will need to use one of the tables, locating it next to the screen).

Once the Teams Room device is connected to the meeting, connect an HDMI lead to your laptop (you will need to use a USB-C to HDMI adaptor, provided, if your laptop does not have one of these ports). The Teams session should detect your laptop and switch to sharing your entire screen, as if you had joined the meeting on this device and then shared your desktop. Please ensure that no sensitive material/information is on display before you connect. If your presentation includes sound, then you can send the sound to the room speakers using the HDMI audio device that will have been created when the cable was attached (on a macOS device open Settings and in the Sound section change the Output option). DO NOT use the Lectern input icon on the Creston panel - this does nothing.

Barco Click-share dongle (Cowey Room 1 or joint)

Alternatively, you can use the Barco Click-share dongle (located on the lectern shelf), choosing the Barco input on the 'Crestron' panel. This device is a wireless HDMI system, using a USB dongle on your device to provide a virtual HDMI connection. To use, select Barco on the Crestron panel and then connect a Click Share dongle to your computer (use a USB-A > C adapter if required). Once connected, a storage device will appear, run the ClickShare app and then once the light on the dongle turns static white, click the button to start sharing your screen (light will change red), as detailed here.