Moreno Valley Unified School District in Riverside County, California, recently opened its Cyber Innovation Center at Canyon Springs High School. It’s the home of the cybersecurity pathway program, and is recognized by the National Initiative for Cyber Education as the first center of its kind for a K-12 public school district. Here, students gain knowledge and skills in computer network maintenance and cybersecurity, earning college credits and CompTIA certifications. The late Aaron Barnett, IT Director of Moreno Valley USD, and Donna Woods, MSc.Ed., the Center’s lead instructor, spearheaded creation of the academic program and the 7,600 SF facility. Integral to the teaching and esports competition activities at the Center is an extensive audiovisual system powered by Extron switching, distribution, control, and audio, with NAV® Pro AV over IP at the center of AV signal distribution.
“The AV systems provide a high-level impact and excellent impression to visitors and participants engaged in our community outreach programs,” says Donna Woods, MSc.Ed, Career Technical Education Cyber Pathway Instructor. “Extron collaborated with our instructors during AV system design to understand specific uses and applications for each course. As Extron customized the AV systems, they provided training and support during and after installation. They were exemplary in follow-up as instructors began using the system verifying everything was running effectively.”
The main teaching spaces are an Esports Computer Lab, a Cyber Classroom, and a Cyber Innovation Lab that serve as classrooms and as competition venues for esports and Cyber Defense contests. The center also houses mentoring conference rooms and hands-on workstations with server racks and network equipment. Connecting all the rooms is the NAV Pro AV over IP system which allows any AV source to be viewed and heard on any display. Supporting this main distribution backbone is a host of Extron switching, distribution and control equipment, including HDMI switchers, DTP wallplates, ShareLink Pro wireless presentation gateways, DMP audio DSP processors, XPA and NetPA amplifiers, Flat Field and SoundField speakers and subwoofers, IPCP Pro control processors, TouchLink Pro touchpanels, and the Extron Control app. Alumni of Moreno Valley’s Cyber Academic Pathway program have gone on to well paying software security and IT positions in industry. Such student successes are all the more impressive because Moreno Valley USD qualifies for the US federal Title I education program for low-income students.
