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Ideas Lounge
The Ideas Lounge is an exciting gathering space designed to support Library and campus programming with public lectures, presentations, workshops, showcases and other interactive events. The large-scale display, along with an enhanced sound system and recording and streaming capabilities, creates an ideal space for teaching, learning and research.
About
Overview
The visualization wall is a high resolution display that can be used to view large amounts of information (data, text, video, etc.) at one time in a single display window, or to view and display multiple inputs in smaller segmented display windows.
- 18 - 55" LCD monitors (3x6)
- Wall dimensions: 7.29 m (w) x 2.05 m (h)
- Wall resolution: 37, 324, 800 pixels (11, 520 (w) x 3, 240 (h) pixels), 72 dpi
Connecting your content
- Resident Windows Desktop
- HDMI Connection
- Airtame - connect devices wirelessly (mobiles, tablets, laptops)
Technology features
- Video recording (front and rear wall mounted cameras)
- Video conferencing (Skype, Hangouts, Zoom, etc.)
- 5 wireless microphones (2 lapel, 2 handheld, 1 gooseneck)
- Presenter monitor on podium
- Wireless keyboard and mouse for resident windows desktop
- Surround sound speaker system
Software
The windows desktop in the Ideas Lounge is loaded with software to enable various uses of the wall. Broad categories of software available include:
- presentation preparation/delivery
- data analysis/visualization
- photo/video editing
- media players
For a full list of software available in the Ideas Lounge please check out the Find Software tool, search by location 'Ideas Lounge'
Room Layout & Capacity
Includes a variety of seating and table options including low, soft seating, low tables, and high-top tables; can accommodate up to 35 people
Includes rows of seating for attendees; can accommodate up to 60 people
Includes 5 standard height round tables with 8 chairs each: can accommodate up to 40 people
Includes high-top tables in stand-up reception style; can accommodate up to 80 people
Room layouts can be customized to best suit the needs of each booking. Please list adjustment requests on the booking form. The Visualization Classroom provides access to the same technology in a more traditional classroom setting.
360° Tour
Booking
- This space can be reserved by MRU faculty, students or staff
- The hours of operation for this space are the same as the Library hours - please note that there is limited technical support available after 5:00 pm Monday - Friday and on weekends.
- Consultation is not required prior to booking this space but is available upon request by submitting the Expression of Interest Form or contacting Library Outreach Lead, Courtney Montgomery, cmmontgomery@mtroyal.ca
Projects
Unpacking Governance and Decision Making
A community conversation hosted by The Institute for Community Prosperity
In partnership with the City of Calgary, The Institute for Community Prosperity hosted an interactive session in the Ideas Lounge. The session included an activity that helped participants understand and challenge notions of good governance and decision-making. Attendees were invited to participate in a mock City Council meeting to replicate the experience of people involved in governance, then reflect on the assumptions made about good governance and how we might invite others to engage in the self-reflective practice necessary to be open to alternative forms of governance.
“This space allowed us to change the room layout to reflect common decision-making set-ups (theater style meeting and a circle) with ease. This was essential to our activity because the layout of the room can affect power imbalances and we wanted the experience to feel real. The size of the Viz Wall made it so we could have all the information on the screen at the same time which increased accessibility. The only downside was not being able to use the closed captioning feature, but the microphones and other features more than made up for that.”
University of the Sunshine Coast presents
The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) in Queensland, Australia is a cutting edge post-secondary institution with impressive visual learning spaces that support shared learning and exploration for both students and faculty. USC's Mark Berry expressed an interest in seeing Mount Royal's own immersive learning spaces such as the Experience Lab, Visualization Classroom, Immersion Studio, and Ideas Lounge. We were honoured to welcome Mr. Berry to campus on August 21, 2018 while he was in Alberta conducting research in the Canadian Rockies with Earth and Environmental Science Professor Lynn Moorman. Mr. Berry created a dynamic multimedia presentation on the USC visualization spaces, which included their features and the thought and consideration that went into their design. He was a natural presenting on the interactive high resolution Visualization Wall while answering questions from staff and faculty in attendance.
MRU Kids get artistic with the visualization wall

The best way to see the potential of evolving technology is to put it in the hands of a child. The Ideas Lounge became one of many daily activity zones for MRU Kids camps that take over campus during the summer months. Furniture in this space was moved out to create three distinct discovery areas for the children whose ages ranged from 5-14. Virtual Reality was easily incorporated through a station that had students use Occulus Rifts to play in a number of virtual experiences. Google Cardboards were the star of a second area that allowed the children and their supervisors to use various apps to engage with VR and easily engage with each other. The Visualization Wall was the ideal large scale format of a shared art canvas. The junior students took turns to use the multi touch display to draw, colour, and take advantage of the digital process to easily wipe away a creation and start anew.
Minister Hoffman announces changes to provincial health

The Government of Alberta chose the Mount Royal University Ideas Lounge to make a historic nursing announcement on November 23, 2018. Sara Hoffman, Minister of Health, Deputy Premier and MLA for Edmonton Glenora announced new regulations that expand the scope of practice for registered nurses and nurse practitioners. Students, faculty and staff, along with multiple media outlets and members of the Calgary community filled out this space that allowed the Minister to share news that frontline health-care professionals will now be able to prescribe drugs in places like travel clinics, sexually transmitted infection programs and workplace health and safety clinics. The School of Nursing and Midwifery provided fantastic high-resolution images, which our in-room team weaved into a bright and branded backdrop for the news release.
Faculty presents research findings with a talk

Professor Emerita, Margy MacMillan is currently a Senior Researcher with Project Information Literacy on their latest study "How Students Engage with News". The former MRU Librarian hosted a special presentation in the Ideas Lounge on November 2, 2018 where she presented findings from the study that surveyed over 5,800 students across 11 U.S. institutions about where they encountered news, what tools they used, what topics they followed and shared, and the role of news in their lives. It also asked specifically about the differences between their personal and academic news habits. The results were fascinating, and countered popular narratives of disengaged 'newsless' youth; on the contrary, following the news takes effort and time, and while many of the participants have developed effective strategies for managing the glut of information, others feel overwhelmed.
Build community through gaming

While campus quiets over the spring and summer months, programming throughout the Library adjusts to accommodate the reduced class schedule. During the summer 2018, Video Game Fridays was a weekly retreat for Mount Royal students, faculty, staff and members of the Calgary community to drop in to the Ideas Lounge and enjoy a friendly yet competitive game of Mario Kart. This became a retreat for many over the lunch hour and even allowed visitors from a wide age range, variety of backgrounds and positions to connect over a popular video game. For many, taking part in a gaming session was their first time in the Ideas Lounge, which allowed us to inform potential users on the equipment and capabilities in the space.
Guides & Templates
The Ideas Lounge displays full-width content at a resolution of 3840 x 1080 pixels. Use the templates below to display at the correct resolution.