4
Hardware Overview
The GEC5 lab system hardware consists of a single rack-mountable Teacher Unit and one Student Interface Unit per student
workstation in your classroom. The Teacher Unit comes with an external power supply that you will plug into an electrical
outlet and the Student Interfaces are powered by the Teacher Unit via Cat5 cables.
Teacher Unit Front:
Examine the front of the Teacher Unit (see Fig. 1). With the exception of the Call Button, the Teacher Unit front is very similar
to the Student Interface Unit front.
1.
Headphone Input: Connect the teacher headphones here for audio playback and microphone communication.
Similar to Student Interface Units, teachers can connect any standard 3.5mm headphones to the Headphone Input
jacks. If the headphones include a microphone (such as the Koss SB40 headphones), connect the 3.5mm mic
cable from the headphones to the microphone input jack. It is especially important for the teacher to have a
headset with attached microphone to improve hands-free class communication.
2.
Volume Knob: Rotate the knob clockwise to increase the overall volume in the teacher headphones. Rotate the
knob counter-clockwise to decrease the overall volume.
NOTE: The teacher volume knob does not impact the volume output of the teacher microphone or Aux
inputs to the students. In other words, if the teacher increases the volume with the volume knob it will
only impact the volume to the teacher headphones and this will have zero impact on the volume of
teacher devices to the student stations.
3.
Aux In 1: This is a stereo input to connect any external device such as a laptop, tablet, or MP3 player.
4.
Power: Toggle the switch to turn the power on or off.
TIP:
Connect a stereo 3.5mm male to stereo 3.5mm male cable and leave this connected at all times. Teachers can then
easily incorporate sound from an external device and broadcast this sound to all student workstations without having to
reach to the back of the Teacher Unit. I suggest keeping this cable connected to a device (MP3 player, iPod, laptop, etc.)
at all times to avoid unwanted noise.
TIP:
I suggest shutting down the Teacher Unit when it will not be in use for an extended period of time. I usually turn the
Teacher Unit on first thing in the morning and off at the end of my teaching day.
TIP:
Be sure to turn off your classroom speakers and/or the power amplifier for your speakers before turning off the
Teacher Unit. This will avoid popping sounds from your speaker that can damage your speakers over time. Generally,
turn the speakers and/or power amp ON last and OFF first.
Power
Aux In 1
Volume
Power
L
R
Aux In 2
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R
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R
Instrument
Input
Room
Out
Record
Out
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Network
(Fig. 1)
