Case Study: Operator’s Dream, Student’s Saviour — AREC In the University of Latvia

Dear ADENA Partners, this month’s case study highlights the University of Latvia’s P. Stradiņš Medical College experience with AREC! The university captures, controls, records, and displays all medical simulations taking place in their medical school using our devices. Created by our partner Boon, AREC delivers easy-to-use yet functionally advanced lecture capture and control solution.

The University of Latvia (known as Latvijas Universitāte in Latvian) is a well-known institution in the country. It is simultaneously the third-oldest and one of the top three universities in Latvia, offering undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees to over 14,000 students every year. The university is divided into 13 faculties, which are further divided into numerous departments, chambers, centres, and laboratories. Some of these faculties have been using AREC Media Stations for years to record and stream lectures, but, until recently, not the P. Stradiņš Medical College. Its medical simulation centre, in particular, did not have any AV systems in place.

To prepare for the new academic year and improve the student experience, the university decided to address this by equipping the medical college’s simulation centre with professional lecture capture systems and cameras. There were several technical requirements for the new equipment:

• Capture three PTZ network cameras and a computer running medical software for the simulation doll.

• Ability to display all video sources in a mixed video layout in the auditorium (room 304) and the three simulation rooms (301, 303, 305).

• Provide two-way communication between all rooms.

• Ensure minimal delay in audio and video transmission, as with defibrillators and other medical devices in the room, every moment counts, and instructions must be delivered instantly.

• Provide a way to easily control the cameras’ PTZ movement, video source switching, audio control, and other media tasks.

• Record every lecture and have an option to stream them to YouTube easily.

  
  

The university was analysing different systems available on the market until our partner Boon arranged a three-way video demonstration. During the call, we showcased how intuitive and capable AREC solutions are, delivering exactly what the customer asked for and more. The final design consisted of four key elements that we go through below.

LS-410 Media Station

The AREC LS-410, our 4-channel Media Station and the foundation of the proposed system, met most of the requirements on its own. It captured the computer, network cameras, and ClearOne audio system. The station combined these AV sources into layouts, and thanks to its 1 DP and 3 HDMI video outputs, simultaneously displayed them in every room. The station records these video sources together and separately, and streams the combined video to YouTube. The LS-410’s internal 2 TB drive ensures that the university can store months’ worth of lectures on the device itself, but it also can automatically back up videos to USB drives, FTP/SFTP servers, VCMS platforms, and Google Drive, making it very simple for the university to manage the recordings.

DS-AC1 Control Station

A-TS02 RADA Touch

The station and cameras were controlled by the DS-AC1 Control Station, a device that combines the functions of video switchers, streamers, and control panels. Through the DS-AC1, a technician can operate each camera’s PTZ using an inbuilt digital joystick, preview and control the LS-410 through an integrated interface, monitor every camera on a local display, and control features of other devices, such as the ClearOne audio processor. The device’s control interface is output to a RADA Touch — our compact touch display, perfectly suited for monitoring and controlling operations.

The RADA A-TC04 NoirCam were chosen as cameras — 4K PTZ network cameras with 25x optical zoom and multiple output options. They deliver pristine images at the highest magnification, capturing every detail of an ongoing simulation. The cameras also feature AI auto-tracking which can be turned on to ensure that the operating student is always in the shot.

A-TC04 NoirCam AI Tracking Cam

The University of Latvia has already started using the system and has praised it greatly for its convenience and simplicity of use. Is your university looking to create the perfect simulation centre solution? Contact us at www.a-dena.com, and we will be happy to demonstrate what AREC can do!

Case Study: Award-Winning Javierian Simulation Centre - Powered by AREC & Integracion AV

Dear ADENA Partners, this month we have an exciting case study from the Pontifical Javieriana University in Colombia. Our partner, Integracion AV, renovated the simulation centre for medical education at the university in a project which won the Cala Awards 2024. By equipping the entire floor with AREC, Shure, Crestron, Liberty, Netgear, and other devices, the case demonstrates how simple it is to create sophisticated yet intuitive solutions for the real-time study and simulation of medical procedures using our products.

The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Pontifical Javieriana University) is a prestigious private university based in Bogotá, Colombia. It is one of the oldest and most renowned universities in the country, consisting of 18 schools with 61 departments and offering 242 academic programmes across a variety of disciplines. Among its alumni are a former President of Colombia, government ministers from across Latin America, producers, Olympic champions, scientists, and many more.

One of the university’s strongest schools is the Faculty of Medicine. It is a leading medical school based on the main campus, with most practical training taking place at the Hospital Universitario San Ignacio. The school is renowned for its clinical simulation centre, one of the first of its kind in Colombia. Originally founded in 2007, the centre was first equipped with traditional simulation laboratories. However, this changed recently when the school decided to renovate the centre with modern educational tools to meet current global training needs. Thanks to the efforts of our partner, Integracion AV, they secured the best solution available. 

The clinical simulation centre occupies an entire floor and is divided into six sections: multiple doctors’ offices and training rooms, critical care units, a monitoring and control room, patient observation rooms and surgery rooms. The university wanted to provide a way to conduct operations in every room simultaneously, record them for later study, while ensuring it is simple to monitor the processes and have two-way live communication between senior doctors and students.

Each doctor’s office was equipped with the same solution with the AREC LS-410 at its core — a 4-channel Media Station with 4K, Dante, NDI|HX support, and many other features. All stations were installed in a server room and connected to the same network using Netgear GSM4248 PX-100NAS switches. The LS-410 effectively combined images from each video source installed in the offices, starting with the RADA A-TC02 OnyxCam AI Tracking camera and an AREC CI-22H PTZ camera via NDI and ONVIF protocols. While the OnyxCams were installed to track doctors in these rooms, the CI-22H cameras were used to show specific presets, such as the examination table with a practice mannequin, a patient's chair, and other areas of the rooms. Computers in each room were connected to the LS-410 stations using Liberty IPEX 5001 encoders and 5002 decoders, safely delivering their audio and video via the network. Conversation audio was captured Shure MXA-710 ceiling microphones and sent to the LS-410 via Dante, while a Crestron DSP-1281 with Fohhn MA-4.100 were used to output audio commentary coming from the supervising instructors, along with computer audio, through Audac CENA speakers. The combined audio and video, as well as each individual video source, was recorded by the LS-410 and immediately available for review by the university, greatly simplifying the media production process.

LS-410 Media Station

A-TC02 OnyxCam AI Tracking

CI-22H PTZ Camera

Other training rooms, critical care units, surgery rooms, and patient observation rooms followed the same basic solution concept but added additional features. For instance, each training room included an extra Liberty decoder, capable of displaying computers, vital signs monitors, and other sources on local LG displays. Each critical care unit used four cameras and two Media Stations, with one of the stations displayed on a local screen. In patient observation rooms, even more cameras, media stations, and other equipment — including a DS-X01 Media Decoder — were used to accommodate the needs of multiple concurrent simulations.

DS-X01 Media Decoder

DS-X09 Media Decoder

In addition to cameras and media stations, surgery rooms featured DS-X09 Media Decoders. These devices displayed multiple network cameras and IP sources in customisable layouts, helping doctors evaluate operations from different angles. Crestron control panels were also installed, allowing them to easily manage all AREC and other devices in the room from a single touch panel.

Lastly, the monitoring and control room, staffed by instructors and senior doctors, was equipped primarily with numerous DS-X09 Media Decoders. Using AREC Multi-view Maker software on computers in this room, doctors could dynamically change which network sources they viewed. Wearing Avantree Quartet headsets and using Shure tabletop microphones, doctors relayed instructions to students and ensured they were followed immediately by observing the process through camera and Media Station livestreams displayed on the DS-X09. 

The masterful execution of this large AV-over-IP installation earned our partner Integracion AV international recognition at the Cala Awards 2024, winning the competition for Best AV Project of the Year. You can watch the project description video made by the Integracion AV team here and a general overview here.

We extend our gratitude to the Integracion AV team and Juan Carlos Gutierrez for the continued trust in and choice of AREC to meet their customers’ AV needs.

Is your local medical university or hospital looking to renovate or build a simulation centre? Contact us at www.a-dena.com to discuss how AREC solutions can create a truly immersive and impressive experience for your customers.

Case study: Advanced healthcare training with AREC at SIMNOVA, Italy

Dear ADENA Partners, this time we have a case study from SIMNOVA, a centre for healthcare studies at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Italy. Completed by our distributor Prase Engineering, and integrators Tagliabue Sistemi and Tecnovox, the university’s setup ensures continuous 24/7 streaming from the operational rooms and automatic backup to Google Drive. Read how it was done below.

The Interdepartmental Centre for Innovative Teaching and Simulation in Medicine and Health Professions, known as SIMNOVA, was established several years ago at the University of Eastern Piedmont. Its mission is to conduct research in the healthcare sector, provide advanced training and related programs aimed at improving the quality of care, enhancing patient safety and minimisation of their health risks. To achieve these goals, SIMNOVA offers a wide range of courses in numerous subject areas, which are delivered in specially equipped simulation rooms. The university required an easy-to-use solution that could connect these rooms, record the operations, and upload them to cloud storage. Thanks to the efforts of our partners, the AREC Media Capture System was proposed and successfully implemented, along with audio systems from Shure.

There are a total of 6 simulation rooms at SIMNOVA, and AREC systems are utilised in all of them. Depending on the number of video inputs, a different AREC station is used for recording the operations. In rooms with 4 video inputs, the university uses LS-860 stations, while LS-300 models are employed in those with fewer sources. These stations capture audio and video content from various medical devices and microphone arrays, combine it with network camera feeds, and mix them into videos with custom layouts. In the control room, the operator can select any of these mixed Media Station streams and view them through the DS-X01 Media Decoder. This setup ensures continuous streaming from the operational rooms, and the graphical user interface (GUI) present on the DS-X01 lets the operator easily switch between different room views with a single touch.

LS-300 Media Station

LS-860 Media Station

DS-X01 Media Decoder

The chief technician responsible for the AV systems at SIMNOVA, Antonio Scalogna, shared the following regarding the installation:

With AREC, I can schedule each session and manage video recording backups in a highly flexible manner. Of course, I can also send the recordings to the instructors who conducted the simulations through Google Drive. Since the Center acquired AREC, I use it practically every day to fine-tune the streaming graphics and discover new features.

With the system in place, each training and simulation done at SIMNOVA is recorded and saved for further study and other purposes, ensuring that the goals of the university are achieved. Would you like to recreate this experience for your university? Reach out to us at www.a-dena.com, and we will be happy to discuss it with you.