The three-story, 60,000-square-foot building houses agricultural organizations as well as the headquarters of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. 

Peter Hannam, one of the principal investors, explained that the Centre would “create a ‘Main Street’ presence for agriculture that is highly visible and accessible and will be a permanent symbol of agriculture’s proud contribution to Canada.”(University of Guelph, Campus Bulletin October 06, 2004)
 
Project 
The Media Centre is designed to contribute to that goal. This modern multimedia studio is an ideal location for Press Conferences, with a 20 person audience capacity. But it can do much more. It is equipped for Videoconferencing, Webcasts, Webinars, Podcasts and videotaping meetings. Agricultural Communications students from the University of Guelph have free access to the Media Centre for media training.

Scope 
The flexibility at the heart of the small control room is the Sony Anycast Station.  This compact, seven kilogram “laptop style” production device handles video switching, audio mixing, VISCA (remote) camera control and web streaming.

The Anycast Unit provides remote pan, tilt, zoom and focus control for the conference room camera (a Sony BRC-300.)  Anycast also receives and switches inputs from a Pioneer DVD recorder (PRV-9200), two VTRs (Betacam and the Sony HVR-M10U HDV deck), a PC for presentations (like PowerPoint), and an Elmo document camera. The Media Centre also offers videoconferencing, with an IP based Polycom unit.

With a High Definition future in mind, the Conference Room features a high def, 45 inch, LCD display, the Sharp PN455.  Thanks to a Folsom Image Pro HD video processor, all signals can be converted to high definition. If standard definition is more suitable for a presentation, it can convert HD to SD as well.  For ease of operation, the high def display is controlled by an AMX touch screen panel.

Media Centre

Media Centre Control Room