A certain number of rooms on campus have been approved as lecture rooms for partially digital defences. This is given by the technical equipment found in these rooms. These rooms have a camera, so that Zoom can be used to communicate with the opponents.
There are two options for a partially digital defence. The best option is to use a room with specific equipment for streaming (Cynap), which will make it possible to stream the defence directly to the defence announcement website. The candidate, the chair of the committee, the chair of the defence and an audience can be present in the room, the opponents participate through a regular Zoom meeting, and anyone who wishes to watch the defence digitally can do so from the defence website.
Alternatively, it can be conducted using Zoom webinar, just like a completely digital defence, but with the candidate, the chair of the committee, the chair of the defence and an audience present in the lecture room. The opponents participate as panelists in Zoom, while anyone who wishes to watch the defence digitally can do so as an attendee in the Zoom webinar.
For both options it may be possible to set up solutions for submitting questions to the candidate, which the chair of the committee will read out at the end of the defence, (digital ex auditorio). If the defence is conducted in a large auditorium where there is room for a large audience, it is not required that there be a solution for digital ex auditorio questions, given that it has been announced on the defence announcement website that it will only be possible to ask questions if one is physically present in the audience.
To attend this type of defence in person one must sign up. You can only attend in person if you have signed up and received confirmation that there is room for you. The candidate, the chair of the defence, the chair of the committee and the technician do not need to sign up as they have to be present. The candidate can reserve up to eight extra seats for their own supervisors, family, colleagues, friends, etc. These people still need to be signed up, but will have priority inn cases where there is not room for everyone who tries to sign up.
Due to requirements of social distancing to limit contagion, it is likely that the defence will take place in one of the larger auditoriums. Everyone present at the defence will be asked to sit as far apart from each other as possible.