Vieunite Pro Brings 800 Years of Hertford College, University of Oxford, History to Life

Background

Hertford College is a constituent college of the world renowned University of Oxford. Hertford welcomes students and academics from across the world to Oxford to study and research in its storied halls. The college, with roots dating back to the 1280s, has a wide range of degrees for undergraduate and graduate students to study including Biochemistry, History, Law and Medicine to name but a few. Located centrally among the dozens of other colleges in Oxford, Hertford takes pride in its small but diverse community of academics. In the summer of 2023, Hertford College approached Vieunite about installing a digital art canvas in their dining hall. The hall is one of the busiest places on campus offering students, staff and visitors a space to eat and socialise outside of the classroom and they were looking at unique ways to modernise the space and pay homage to the college’s history.

Challenges

Hertford were looking for a digital screen to take prime position in the Hertford College Dining Hall, where they could display photos of notable alumni who had lived, worked or taught subjects throughout the college’s nearly 800-year history. They could also use the digital canvas to display art with a special connection to the college or the city. Instead of having to choose certain people to highlight with a traditional art piece, by going digital they could highlight and celebrate a wider selection of alumni.

The frame needed to be in keeping with the aesthetics of the traditional gothic design of the room. With rich, dark wood panelling, large arched windows and high ceilings, the room has a grand feeling and they didn’t want a screen to look out of place here. The screen could not be too bright or too large. It was imperative the canvas blended well into the surroundings. Regardless of how the screen was to be powered there could be absolutely no visible cables showing. Doing so would threaten the entire aesthetic of the room which faithfully pays respect to the history of the college. Installation of the screen could not be too disruptive either to the environment.

The canvas would be managed and updated by the estates IT team. Despite their large breadth of knowledge to do with technology, the college would not be constantly updating the screen but needed the means of controlling the screen to be easy when they needed to do so.

Solutions

The Vieunite Pro digital canvas was the perfect display to fit the needs of Hertford College. We supplied the Textura with the ‘Walnut’ frame option, out of the styles available we knew this one would be most in keeping the aesthetic of the grand dining hall. At 27 Inches the screen is definitely noticeable but not large enough to be over bearing and detract from other portraits in the hall. The canvases unique texture accurate technology ensures the content is visible without being overpowering.

We understood that installing the Textura digital canvas would not be disruptive, all that is required is the fixing of the mounting plate to the wall, with careful planning we could also make sure to feed the wires behind the walls to connect with the power source. The mounting plate allows for easy fixing in portrait/landscape orientation. The Textura is controlled via the free Vieunite App, which would allow the IT team to create playlists of content and manage the display without any hassle.

Results

The Textura Pro digital canvas was installed in the dining hall of Hertford College in early autumn 2023. As we predicted there were no issues and the college were very happy with the new digital screen. They were able to bring modern technology into a traditional space and pay homage to the grand history of Hertford. To build on the success of the canvas, the university has expressed support for installing Textura canvases in the redeveloped library space.