Case Study: “Mate, your house’s burning!” – AREC enhances UK Fire Service training procedures.

Dear ADENA Partners, our latest case study highlights how AREC is supporting real-life heroes – the West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS). Our products are part of a system designed by Hadleigh Technical Support in collaboration with our distributor, Tukans (The CUK Group). This solution has significantly enhanced WMFS’s training procedures, enabling both new recruits and experienced officers to be better prepared for a wide range of emergency scenarios.

The West Midlands Fire Service is the second most important fire and rescue service in England. It covers an area of approximately 1000 square kilometres and serves a population of about three million people across seven local authorities: Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. However, it is not only the size of the area that makes this fire service so vital – it is also the fact that it includes some of the most deprived communities in the country. With associated socio-economic and health-related challenges, the risk of fires and other emergencies is particularly high, meaning the fire service must always be prepared for any situation at all times. To this end, the fire service sought a professional AV system for its headquarters – one that would support comprehensive training sessions and enhance emergency preparedness.

LS-860(N) Media Station

Partnering with Hadleigh Technical Support, our UK distributor Tukans (The CUK Group) provided a solution based on the AREC LS-860 Media Station, alongside products from other brands. This model of Media Station can process up to four video sources simultaneously, combining them with custom graphics and mixing them into user-defined video layouts. The station records these video sources in two ways – both in a specified layout and as individual video files. Recordings are saved internally on the LS-860’s 2TB hard drive, but can also be stored on NAS, USB drives, or other external storage devices. The LS-860 can also output connected video sources in various modes, whether in customisable video layouts or as looping feeds on local displays – a feature that was particularly important for achieving the fire service’s training goals.

At the WMFS headquarters, our station recorded video from multiple CI-22H cameras and computers running scenario simulator software. The cameras were positioned throughout the facility – some capturing the trainees, others focused on the examiners. The computers simulated a variety of emergency situations that might occur in the field. Combined views of these video sources were displayed in control and training rooms, made possible by the loop-through capabilities of the LS-860 and signal management provided by Netvio’s IP‑JP4‑60 AVoIP products. Netvio devices distributed different sources and LS-860 outputs to these rooms with visually lossless latency.

Another feature that made the LS-860 the perfect fit for this scenario was its ability to record individual audio sources onto individual video files. This enabled assessors to review each participant’s performance independently of the audio from the simulator software or other microphones. This functionality also allowed the fire service to conduct multiple training sessions simultaneously using just one Media Station, making it an even more valuable choice for the institution.

As for audio, a Symetrix DSP was used. It seamlessly combined clear audio inputs from ClockAudio C-303-D array hanging microphones and Televic Unite radio microphones. The Symetrix device distributed the audio feeds to various endpoints, including the LS-860 and Vaddio Dante ceiling speakers.

Although the system was only installed a few days ago, it is already helping the fire service deliver better training for its staff. Take a look at the video below to see the system in action!

Interested in creating a similar solution for your customer? Contact us at www.a-dena.com, and let’s discuss your project needs at your convenience!

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.

ADENA Hack: How to combine AREC solutions for the best conference room setups?

In our June ADENA Hack we focused on combining the DS-4CU Speaker Tracking Station with CI-T21H/CI-T10 tracking cameras and regular CI-21H/22H PTZ cameras for capturing and tracking conference room participants. This time, we would like to build on this topic and mention an additional way in which you can add on to these systems.

You can consider using the latest AI Transcription and Translation device, KS-CC1. Its purpose is to add closed captions and translate the speech into two additional languages simultaneously. The connected audio and video source can be recorded and streamed at the same time too. The stream produced by KS-CC1 will contain either the closed captions of the speaker or their translated speech into one of the selected languages - this can be determined on the management page of the station. Furthermore, KS-CC1 can provide a QR code for viewers with mobile devices to scan. Once they scan it, a page will open where they will be able to see and follow the meeting with the text in their language of choice. Lastly, after the recording session is over, it is possible to edit the .srt files for the captioned and translated languages, thus eliminating inaccuracies. Users can upload the final version of the video with embedded subtitles for viewer convenience.

For these reasons, KS-CC1 Closed Captions Station is a perfect add-on to installations with DS-4CU. The latter can provide up to 4 video sources for recording and streaming on KS-CC1, and the microphone congress system used with the DS-4CU will provide audio input to the station. Active speakers tracked by the DS-4CU will be captioned and translated. Thus, with just two devices, you can achieve recording, streaming, tracking, captioning and translation of meetings, debates, and other sorts of events where DS-4CU and KS-CC1 can be used.

Would you like to know more about how else AREC installations can be upgraded? Reach out to us at www.a-dena.com and we will be happy to talk to you about that.