Crestron control and an interactive whiteboard make training more impactful for NRG personnel.

Challenge: Provide an easy-to-use but powerful presentation system in a 20+ seat training room, where the instructor can present from either the front or back of the room and students can interact with the learning materials in a hands-on manner.

Solution: A 70” LED screen, electronic whiteboard, JBL ceiling speakers, and Crestron control brings training to life for NRG personnel.

NRG Energy, Inc. upgraded the training room in its NRG Arthur Kill, LLC, facility, situated at 4401 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island. As one of the largest generators of electrical power in the world, the Fortune 500 parent company NRG Energy, Inc. supplies 53,000 megawatts of electricity annually, capable of powering nearly 42 million homes across 47 states.

In the Arthur Kill facility, employees are responsible for overseeing two steam generating units and 20 gas turbines, generating a total of more than 1,456 MW of energy for Staten Island. As such, training is critical, not only for the employees’ safety and to the company’s productivity, but to the safety of the Island’s half a million residents. NRG opened a new training facility at the Victory Blvd. location, and called on JD Pro AV to provide the latest in presentation systems to accommodate multiple instructors with different devices, teaching styles and room orientation preferences.

Repeat Customers

NRG Arthur Kill Power LLC had previously hired JD Pro to design and install a simple conference room facility with analog audio, a projector and screen and a flat panel display. Impressed with the work, the company’s attention to detail and technical knowledge, NRG Arthur Kill’s Richard Travers called on the integrator again to create and install systems for the training room.

Using Technology to Appeal to Multiple Learning Styles

Researchers have determined that people have different modalities, or styles, of learning. Some learn in a hands-on way (kinesthetic), others learn by hearing (auditory) and some learn by watching (visual). Of course, most people use all of our senses when we learn knew tasks or take on new knowledge, but when instructors teach in a way that appeals to our preferred style of learning, we absorb the information faster and more effectively. With this in mind, today’s modern training rooms should appeal, equally well, to visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners. The NRG training room uses technology to fulfill these requirements.

Sound and Video Brings Training to Life

With a JBL sound system consisting of Control series ceiling speakers placed throughout the room, and mic inputs located at the front and back, auditory learners have no problem hearing the instructor wherever he stands. A 70” LED screen can display training videos, appealing to those who learn best by watching. Next to that, a 70” interactive whiteboard displays information from a Mitsubishi Professional WXGA DLP 2800 lumen projector. The interactive whiteboard adds a kinesthetic element to teaching. Instructors can run various scenarios on the screen in a simulation of an actual operations room. Students then react to the situations, selecting the control sequences they’d use in emergency. Students learn by doing, which cements the knowledge in their minds and is as close to real-world training as any training simulation can get.

Flexible and User-friendly Audio, Video and Control Systems

Ease-of-use, reliability, and flexibility were key considerations. JD Pro AV specified a Crestron DMPS-300-C, a complete presentation control and signal routing solution. The unit integrates the control system, multimedia matrix switcher, mic mixer, audio DSP, amplifier and DigitalMedia distribution center into a 3-space rackmount package. Housed locally in the training room, the unit receives feeds from a user’s laptop, a desktop computer that lives in the training room, or a DVD player, and route the signals to either the whiteboard or the LED screen with just the push of a button. With two input locations, instructors can plug in their laptop and microphone at either the front or back of the room for flexibility.

“Sometimes, when you try to simplify the operation of a system for the customer, you make it more complicated. With the Crestron DMPS-300-C, that was never a concern,” says Jak Daragjati, President, JD Pro AV. Pleased with the end result in the training facility, the end-user client Richard Travers noted, “I recommend JD Pro to anyone in need of a quality audiovisual or presentation system.”