Carl E. Hirsch Media Convergence Lab

   When former Kent State student and radio entrepreneur, Carl Hirsch, decided to donate $500,000 to the university, his goal was to develop a high-tech classroom as a prototype for the School of Journalism and Communication's future home in Franklin Hall.

The 'Hirsch Lab' in the Music and Speech Building served as a space where students could experiment with convergence.

Jeff Fruit, director of the School, said it also served as a “testing ground” for things the school thought it might like to try in its new home in Franklin Hall.

“A lot of the things you see in the classrooms in Franklin are things we picked up (in the old Hirsch lab) like the classrooms that have everything on wheels,” he said. “We tried that out first in that facility and learned what are the advantages and disadvantages.”

The mission of the new glass-encased Hirsch Lab in Franklin Hall, which Fruit refers to as Hirsch 2.0, has not yet been fully determined.

   “That’s one of the things we’re been having a lot of discussions about, and we haven’t settled on yet,” Fruit said. “The goal is that the Hirsch Lab will be what it was before to the extent that we’re going to be trying new things, using new technologies and doing different kinds of research there.”

   The room features sophisticated multimedia capabilities, movable furniture and an AMX video controller, which Fruit referred to as a “remote on steroids.”

   “The Hirsch Lab is doing some of those higher end things that other parts of the facility aren’t necessarily set up to do,” Fruit said. “It’s a very flexible space that we’re going to use for the newest and the most interesting kind of stuff.”

 But Fruit said the lack of a defined mission isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“You would not want this building to be 100 percent programmed and filled to the brim right now, because where would that give us the capability to deal with the next cool thing coming down the pike?” he said. “You want to have some spaces that can be programmed to meet emerging needs.”

— Tim Magaw, The Co-Lab