Project Perspective
As Barwon Health consolidates its emergency services at their main facility, University Hospital Geelong, a growing need was arising to centralise the command of all aspects of emergency and intensive care services to a single location so that critical decisions could be made. University Hospital is home to two separate emergency departments, one dedicated to children and the second for adults. In addition to this, University Hospital boasts the largest intensive care ward in regional Victoria.
A suitable space was found and refurbished to house this central command, known as the Service Operations Centre, and MultiTek Solutions was engaged to provide an Audio Visual system to allow the centre to work simply and effectively during times of extreme pressure within the hospital.
At its heart, the Service Operations Centre has a large central huddle space which has a range of displays that show various important dashboards and statistics so that emergency staff can see at a glance the status of each area of concern. This sits in the middle of the staff hub so that any and all members can get up from their desk and head to the huddle space to collaborate on solutions. It also includes the ability to dial in colleagues and experts from anywhere in the world to advise and collaborate remotely, providing vital third-party assistance.
Throughout the space there are a range of additional meeting and collaboration rooms of various sizes to accommodate smaller team breakout groups.
Technical Requirements
The requirements for this project were relatively simple — we needed to display as much real-time information to the users as possible so that they can make the most informed and critical decisions.
The sources of this information come from a range of software platforms and need to be arranged on the displays in different configurations depending on the needs of the day.
In order to achieve the outcomes needed for this project and to future-proof it, a Crestron NVX AV-over-IP system was required. Its initial work is fairly straightforward in that we have six sources and six displays, so these can be configured in any way the user likes. NVX was chosen for this relatively simple task because all stakeholders could see the needs of this system growing and becoming more complex as time goes on. Some likely growth to the system will be more sources and more displays, a reconfiguration of the display to create a video wall, sending data out of the room to other locations and also bringing other data in. With NVX this is all possible and expandable in the future.
In line with the client’s standards, we also incorporated a Yealink M-Core system for Microsoft Teams integration. This system includes wireless presentation, ceiling microphone and speakers as an all-in-one package — an impressive kit that installed and commissioned in a matter of minutes and ensures seamless collaboration across the planet. It also complements the data displayed on the adjacent Sony commercial displays.
Outcomes
This project was a challenging and rewarding design as it incorporated the needs of a wide range of stakeholders and it operates in an area of critical importance to the health of our community.
This project is a testament to MultiTek Solutions’ design engineers who are so skilled at listening to the needs of our clients and turning them into a technical reality.
The results speak for themselves — a neat and seemingly simple solution that provides everything the team needs to carry out their important work at the front, with all of the hard work going into the back end to achieve these results. The client began actively using this space on the day we handed over and it has been in full 24-hour operation since without any downtime.
A fantastic result for a system meeting the needs of the community now and long into the future.
