Even though North Shore LIJ University Hospital (NSLIJ) is a pro at studying organs and bodily fluids, it’s taking the meaning of plasma to a new level.
The hospital recently installed a Primeview plasma video wall in the Rust Auditorium. The video wall, which is 52 inches per unit, 156 inches wide and 90 inches tall, is used for showing pictures and live videos of medical cases, including live surgeries.
Chanan Averbuch, Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Primeview says NSLIJ provides education in house to both hospital employees and people who are studying medicine, and needed a solution that was captivating and attractive to each of these audiences.
“It’s imperative that they have a solution to present on that doesn’t put people to sleep, that has the perfect amount of brightness, the right clarity, that has an ease-of-use, and most importantly, that it enhances the presenter,” he says.
Averbuch says the hospital was looking at projection and flat panels for the auditorium, and eventually settled on the seamless plasma video wall.
While the solution was a good fit for NSLIJ, Averbuch says plasma video walls are fragile.
The fragility stems from the 1.8 millimeter gap between the glass front and back of the display, “which is like the depth of a credit card,” he says. Plus, plasma video walls aren’t built with a frame around them like LCD’s do, which takes away additional padding.<div
“The video wall is part of that teaching and learning experience. We’re a state-of-the-art patient care environment and learning environment, and the video wall reflects our goals and missions.”
-Debra Eisenberg, Director of the Medical Library at NSLIJ
But that doesn’t stop NSLIJ from using the video wall for heavy-duty learning, especially with its sharp colors.
“Because it’s medical, when you’re doing your presentation, especially when they’re doing a lot of oncology slides, that pink needs to be pink, and that white needs to be white,” Averbuch says. “If it’s yellow or orange, it’s completely a different presentation. If the gap is too big, then you can’t distinguish between the cancerous part and noncancerous part.”
Debra Eisenbeg, Director of the Medical Library at NSLIJ says that before the video wall, students and professors had to view medical presentations on the hospital’s projector and glass slides.
“Circa 1971, it was state-of-the-art at that time, and it actually served us very well until we decided to do this,” she says. “It was a reflective glass screen with LCD rear projection for graphic slide video presentation, with integration into audio.”
Over the years, Eisenberg says the technology and wiring was in dire need of an upgrade, and it was time for an up-to-date solution.
“We had to come up with something that would be a “wow” factor,” she says.
She says students and professors use the video walls to view surgeries, and can even get up close and personal with a live tumor.
“Live means a live video of the actual surgical procedure, specifically honing in on the pulsating tumor,” she says. “The tumors have blood flowing through them. You can see and hear the actual pulsation. That’s how specific it is.””
Eisenberg says the plasma video wall’s capabilities drop jaws and supplement the hospital’s “innovative environment.”
“Resolution, audio and the visual experience is paramount to the success of the program and teacher,” she says. “It isn’t just the teachers, residents and surgeons discussing it. It also has to be visually meaningful.”
How to Plan for Your Own Plasma Video Wall
Decide if a plasma video wall is right for your college
Charlie Macli, President of IVCi and the project’s integrator, says that colleges should consider the size of the room they want the video wall in, then determine if it will be a good fit.
“If it’s a very large room where the seating angles are important and you want people sitting on the far extreme sides to be able to see a clearer pictures, and if you’re really looking for an environment where the user of the equipment can put up content and other sources of video in any format that they want, then a video wall is something that they should consider,” he says. “That’s really the value of the video wall, is being able to design the content on that wall in any way that you want.”
Decide what you need the video wall for
Macli says colleges should figure out what the video wall’s use-case is going to be before purchasing it.
“They have to define those use-cases,” he says. “By that I mean determining how the various modes of content would be put up to the screen. You might have critical data as in the case of a hospital, a video of an operation, and you decide how you want to present that. You work with your integrator to design those templates.”
Do your due diligence
Eisenberg says colleges need to do their homework before investing in a plasma video wall. She says colleges should ask questions about support, who your audience is and who will be using it.
“Do you due diligence carefully,” she says. “Look at your audience. How are you going to use the wall, who are the users? What support are you going to have? Will this be technically supported, or is going to be dependent on an educated audience with a technician far away nine to five only?”
Figure out where the money will come from
Even though the hospital is a not-for-profit institution, Eisenberg says NSLIJ was able to afford the plasma video wall thanks to monetary support from administration.
“Think about the buy-in,” she says. “Who’s supporting you? Why are you making this decision? Those are questions to ask at the beginning, before you start the project.”
Once those funds are accounted for, she says the college can decide how the money will be used post-installation.
“Don’t forget to allocate dollars for support,” Eisenberg says. “It isn’t just the technician. It’s support, whether it’s contractual or having extra money for cabeling or for things unforeseen, for power surges, or power dips, for a myriad of technology-related issues.”
Don’t be afraid to ask for help during the installation
Averbuch says colleges should engage their video wall manufacturer as early as possible. That way, the two can work together to design the system, build the solution and find the right partner for the installation.
“Check your ego in at the door,” he says. “Don’t pretend you can handle anything. It’s ok to ask for help, and that’s what we do. [You want a manufacturer] to help things get installed properly, that has the expertise, that has the pedigree to nail these types of projects in a positive way.”
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