• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

My TechDecisions

  • Best of Tech Decisions
  • Topics
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Mobility
    • Unified Communications
    • IT Infrastructure
    • Network Security
    • Physical Security
    • Facility
    • Compliance
  • RFP Resources
  • Resources
  • Podcasts
  • Subscribe
  • Project of the Week
  • About Us
    SEARCH
Facility

Florida International University Serves Up Collaborative Technology in Its New Restaurant Lab

Restaurant lab technology gives students real world experience and instructors easy access to monitor student performance.

June 4, 2014 Jessica Kennedy Leave a Comment

Previous Slide Next Slide

Part of FIU’s restaurant lab is an actual restaurant with a 5-star feel. Martha Stewart has been here, and said she was very impressed. Photo by FIU.

In the kitchen, students get real-world experience in preparing meals. Here is one area IT Director Dale Gomez said the lab felt like “1,000 pounds of technology being put into a 10 pound bag.” Photo by FIU.

The kitchen’s cameras are shielded by a dome to protect them from oil and heat while students prepare and run meals for the restaurant. At night, these cameras capture surveillance footage. Photo by FIU.

Instructors have the ability to view the kitchen from the restaurant area, and from the restaurant to the kitchen area to make sure everything runs smoothly. Photo by FIU.

Touch panels are located everywhere for easy access, quick communication and effective lecturing. Photo by FIU.

“We wanted to really put ourselves above and beyond what is currently being offered by other hospitality programs out there,” says Dale Gomez, Director of University Computer Systems at FIU. “We…provide students with a five-star restaurant in terms of [having them]creating the dishes all the way up to managing the actual restaurant itself, then encompassing all these audio visual innovations and technology to give them a better edge once they leave the program and they start either working for a restaurant or owning their own.” Photo by FIU.

Students use the restaurant lab’s digital signage displays to call up menus and orders. Photo by FIU.

FIU’s Wine Spirits Beverage Management Center Wine Lab features a special lighting infrastructure that allows the faculty to change the lighting. For example, if faculty are showing students red wine, they can manipulate the lights to turn the room red so students have a better visual experience of the wine. Photo by FIU.

Florida International University‘s new restaurant management lab orders up more than just 5-star quality food.

With its Panasonic cameras, TV monitors, Crestron touch panels and Polycom videoconferencing system, the restaurant management lab is one of a kind in the world, and sets the bar for the future of hospitality training.

FIU wanted to construct a high-tech space that enabled instructors to monitor student performance in both the kitchen and restaurant sections of the lab, while engaging in distance learning with culinary schools in China and Ireland and in each of its own live classrooms.

Dale Gomez, IT Director at the Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at FIU says that the school wanted to take the restaurant and kitchen concept and put it in a classroom with a 5-star look.

“We wanted to focus on teaching and management and give instructors the flexibility to manage both sides of the field,” he says.

Gomez says once AVI-SPL started integrating the project, it felt like “1,000 pounds of technology put into a 10 pound bag.”

The technology installed into the restaurant lab includes:

• 18 Panasonic point-tilt-zoom cameras, which are controlled by
• Crestron touch panels, which feed into the screens of the lab’s
• 10 Sharp Electronics TV monitors, which range from 32 to 90 inches
• Wireless mics at each of the dining tables
• Digital displays showing food orders, point of sales information and kitchen-action video feeds
• A 24 inch touch screen lectern to watch and annotate lectures
• HD displays to support the Polycom conferencing system and cameras, which also function as surveillance cameras after closing

Pages: Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!

Jessica Kennedy
Jessica Kennedy

Jessica Kennedy is an editor at TechDecisions Media, targeting the higher education market. Jessica joined the TechDecisions team in 2014 and covers technologies that improve teaching and learning.

Tagged With: Collaboration, Conferencing, Display, Higher Ed, Interactive System, Learning Center

Related Content:

  • Logitech Logi Dock Flex Logitech Wants to Help Solve Hybrid Work Issues…
  • Sennheiser EW-DX Sennheiser EW-DX: A Professional Audio System Made Easy
  • Anderson Center Winston-Salem State University Extron’s NAV Pro AV over IP Powers WSSU…
  • Humly booking device on a desk mount. Humly to Launch Interactive Hardware Solutions For Hybrid…

Free downloadable guide you may like:

  • Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate SpacesWorkplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces

    From lobbies and shared spaces to conference rooms and multipurpose facilities, you need high-performing AV technology to effectively share information. From the initial design and evaluation process through installation, you need the most reliable and high-quality display and image processing products possible. This new download, “Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces,” provides examples of successful […]

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the FREE Tech Decisions eNewsletter

Sign up Today!

Latest Downloads

Download TechDecisions' Blueprint Series report on Security Awareness now!
Blueprint Series: Why Your Security Awareness Program is Probably Falling Short

Learn about the evolution of phishing attacks and best practices for security awareness programs to ensure your organization is properly prepared t...

Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces
Workplace Collaboration Tools for Corporate Spaces

From lobbies and shared spaces to conference rooms and multipurpose facilities, you need high-performing AV technology to effectively share informa...

ChatGPT, generative AI, enterprise, workplace
Blueprint Series: ChatGPT and Generative AI in the Workplace

This latest release of the TechDecisions Blueprint Series explores the new phenomenon of tools such as ChatGPT and how IT leaders should go about d...

View All Downloads

Would you like your latest project featured on TechDecisions as Project of the Week?

Apply Today!
Sharp Microsoft Collaboration HQ Logo

Learn More About the
Windows Collaboration Display

More from Our Sister Publications

Get the latest news about AV integrators and Security installers from our sister publications:

Commercial IntegratorSecurity Sales

AV-iQ

Footer

TechDecisions

  • Home
  • Welcome to TechDecisions
  • Subscribe to the Newsletter
  • Contact Us
  • Media Solutions & Advertising
  • Comment Guidelines
  • RSS Feeds
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linkedin

Free Technology Guides

FREE Downloadable resources from TechDecisions provide timely insight into the issues that IT, A/V, and Security end-users, managers, and decision makers are facing in commercial, corporate, education, institutional, and other vertical markets

View all Guides
TD Project of the Week

Get your latest project featured on TechDecisions Project of the Week. Submit your work once and it will be eligible for all upcoming weeks.

Enter Today!
Emerald Logo
ABOUTCAREERSAUTHORIZED SERVICE PROVIDERSTERMS OF USEPRIVACY POLICY

© 2023 Emerald X, LLC. All rights reserved.