The COVID-19 pandemic presented schools with unprecedented challenges and ultimately brought about a seismic shift in the way schools operate.

Haverford Systems, an audiovisual design and installation firm with more than 30 years of experience in the region, helped several schools upgrade their technology and therefore continue their educational mission with as little disruption as possible.

At The Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, Haverford Systems worked on more than 60 classrooms, including the school’s West Theatre, to allow bring-your-own-device (BYOD) video conferencing. This included PTZOptics cameras for each room, as well as wireless speakerphone/microphones. Students and teachers could step into a classroom and plug in their laptop and have access to the room’s video/audio.

More recently, Haverford Systems upgraded classrooms to include interactive projectors and installed Meeting Owl cameras and new speakers, while maintaining the BYOD functionality.

“Agnes Irwin had a relationship with Haverford Systems that predated my arrival at the school,” said Andrew Katz, Director of Academic and Information Technology at Agnes Irwin. “However, they were just one of several vendors we were using for our AV work. Depending on the room and/or project, we may have had Company A handling our projection systems and Company B handling our programming. I wanted to consolidate all the work with one vendor to make things easier on our end.”

Katz decided to reach out to Shawn Thornton, an Integration Sales Manager at Haverford Systems who is known for his detail-oriented approach and responsiveness.

“Andrew brought us in as the trusted vendor to take on as much as possible,” said Thornton. “We started with a few rooms to show him our expertise first-hand, and since then, we’ve been working on projects for them consistently.”

“I felt Shawn was genuinely interested in the work we were doing, and I connected with him on a personal level,” said Katz. “I’m a big proponent of having relationships with the people you do business with. There’s an intangible value to having people who know your room, know your school, know how you operate. He and Haverford provide what we need, within the right timeframe and cost.”

Learn more about Haverford Systems and how its integrations of audiovisual technology have been positively impacting student learning and instructor satisfaction for decades.