Join us as we explore The Huddle at North Melbourne Football Club, a space that is designed to engage students and encourage participatory
education to uplift the community.
North Melbourne FC is an Australian rules Football Club that competes in Australia’s national league. The Huddle was established in 2010 as the community arm of North Melbourne FC in partnership with the Scanlon Foundation and the Australian Multicultural Foundation.
Cameron McLeod, CEO of The Huddle, North Melbourne FC, says: “The Huddle was born out of the role and value of sport and the influence the North Melbourne Football Club has in connecting people from diverse backgrounds to build upon their strengths, increasing their ability to participate in society, and contributing to more socially inclusive communities.”
The purpose of The Huddle is to engage primary and secondary school students and enhance their engagement in learning. Participants attend a one-day intensive session that encourages a better understanding of the STEM syllabus (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) as well as learning around the subject matter of how STEM intersects with sports.
For the project, Mott MacDonald was engaged as the audio visual consultant while The Ci Group served as the systems integrator.
Dom Vaiano, head of strategic partnerships at The Ci Group, was particularly delighted to work with North Melbourne FC as he explains: “We won the project through a tender process, and we had been talking with North Melbourne FC before the project even came to market. On a personal note, I am a lifelong North Melbourne FC fan and supporter so let’s just say I was never going to miss out on this opportunity to work with the football club.”
The Huddle experience at North Melbourne FC comprises an immersive learning space that mirrors the oval shape of an Australian rules football field, an entryway display, plus additional learning spaces for the participants to access.
The entryway display sets the tone for the immersive learning experience at The Huddle. Floor to ceiling LED screens mimic the atmosphere found outside an actual stadium before and after a game. The ambience is conveyed with the help of proximity speakers in addition to the LED display.
The centrepiece of the immersive space is a curved LED display comprising Aurora 1.9mm pixel pitch LED tiles with a Novastar H9 processor. The LED display conforms to the oval shape of the immersive space. Discussing how the decision to use an LED display was made, Charlee Dare, technical director for digital technology at Mott MacDonald, says: “The project architect (HB Arch) suggested we meet with Cameron McLeod to review potential options for how AV could fit into the existing Huddle space. The areas for education had already been determined and our initial discussions were about defining the user needs and functional requirements for each space, and potential technology options that could be used to activate them. On seeing the oval shape of learning space 1, we knew that it would be complex room to enable with audio visual systems. We started by detailing the user requirements with North Melbourne FC, which we then used to inform the various concepts around how AV would fit into the spaces and how the displays and audio could work. Our initial ideas were based around using projection mapping around the edge of the room to create a single seamless digital canvas that could also be broken into smaller team learning pods.”
Dare continues: “When it came time to start on the formal AV design component of the project a few years later, we conducted an internal challenge review regarding the systems proposed in the concept design and quickly identified that LED would be the better solution for the space. LED technology had matured significantly since the initial design was developed, becoming a lot more stable with higher pixel densities available at lower price points, and we knew that it would have an amazing impact on the project.”
For digital signage control, The Ci Group has created a purpose-built system using Q Lab software that manages content for all the displays at The Huddle and provides control for theatrical lighting in the form of presets and more.
Vaiano says: “The Huddle can do up to seven different pods for learning and interaction. We went through the operation modes required which ranged from individual zones to group learning zones and then the screen was designed to support these modes. The screen can be broken up into smaller individual displays, but it can also be used as one display to have the full ‘Game Day’ mode and provide that immersive, real wow factor. And this immersive experience is what gets the kids engaged. It enables participation and engagement with the content.”
Audio in the immersive space is provided by QSC speakers that are powered by QSC amplifiers and a Q-SYS Core 110f DSP. But in consideration of the acoustics of the space and the complexity of the audio content requirement, a remarkable 21-channel playback system using the capabilities of Spatial Inc from the USA has been created.
Vaiano says: “The integration of Spatial was seamless and the way the audio system has been configured really addresses the acoustic challenges we faced in the space as well as helped to create that immersive atmosphere that was crucial to The Huddle experience.”
Regarding the outcome in the immersive space Vaiano says: “You have two individual pieces of content that need to go together, you have the content that goes up on the display and you have spatial audio. Both are powered by custom solutions that The Ci Group has deployed and there is endless possibility with content that they can produce and showcase because it is a really powerful system.”
Education spaces outside the immersive experience have also been fitted with technology. JBL Control 25 AV speakers provide audio while a Sennheiser TCC 2 ceiling microphone is used for audio pickup. A Q-SYS Core Nano serves as the DSP.
For video, Philips flat panel displays are used with Q-SYS NV32 units being used for video signal transmission.
With the project complete and operational, McLeod provides insight into how it has been received: “The purpose of The Huddle project was for young school students to experience the power of sport and technology to strengthen education. Throughout 2023, the ‘Game Day’ session will engage up to 4,500 students from 100 schools located in low socioeconomic areas across Victoria. The football club wanted to address, in a practical way, the rising issues of student disengagement in the classroom and to leverage the power of sport to help young people learn, grow, and belong. We believe the technology provided for the purpose has helped us achieve this aim.”
Vaiano says: “North Melbourne FC was keen to ensure that The Huddle was successful and then expand on its initial use, which was for education, to possibly other applications. The results have been amazing and there are discussions to see how the space can be used for more than just education and expanded into other environments.”
Dare concludes: “This is a truly exciting and unique space, and this project’s fantastic outcome is really driven by the fact that the team at North Melbourne FC is passionate about having a positive impact on the community. Our team has a great track record integrating technology at AFL clubs. Through this project, it was exciting to bring football and STEM together, in the same environment with technology. I think the Game Day syllabus content developed by North Melbourne FC, MKTG, Beautiful Minds, and Spatial Audio in conjunction with the technology systems deployed really shows how STEM education integrates with professional athletics and elite level sports.”