SYMETRIX SymNet GOES TO MEDICAL SCHOOL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - AUGUST 2008: The University of Minnesota Medical School graduates over two hundred students a year who go on to pursue
careers as doctors, nurses, and EMTs.
As part of the process that transforms
them from eager neophytes to competent professionals, the students practice
handling a range of complicated medical scenarios using sophisticated
patient simulators. The life-sized simulators have pulses, hearts, lungs,
bowels, and the capacity to vocalize. They are able to present the symptoms
of many medical complications, responding appropriately to students'
interventions. The school has several such simulators housed in four rooms
of a new facility in the basement of the Phillips-Wangensteen building on
the Twin Cities campus. For the purposes of monitoring students during a
simulation and for grading and debriefing students after they have finished,
the school hired Signature AV to capture room audio, video, and simulator
output to a control room, a classroom, and a companion recording system.
Their design centered on Symetrix' SymNet digital signal processors to
provide the system's complicated routing and filtering.
Based in Alexandria, Virginia, Signature AV is an audio-visual engineering
and design firm that specializes on the seamless integration of AV and IT
technologies. John Wormington designed and installed the system for the
University of Minnesota with input from company principal JP Bonin.
Each of the four rooms is wired with Crown ceiling-mounted microphones, and
the technician running a particular simulation has the option to wire
particular students or instructors with four Shure wireless lavaliere
microphones. The technician runs the simulations from a master control room,
and can communicate with participants via JBL speakers in each simulation
room powered by a QSC paging amplifier. In addition, an adjacent classroom
with QSC amplifiers and JBL speakers allows for real-time viewing or
debriefing from the recording system. All of the audio coming to or from
each of the simulation rooms, the control room, the classroom, and the
computer recording system is processed by two SymNet 8x8 DSP units with
inputs expanded by two BreakIn12 units and outputs expanded by two
BreakOut12 units. The modest routing flexibility is accessible via an AMX
Netlinx Touch Panel Interface.
In addition to audio, Wormington designed and installed a comprehensive
video system. Two ceiling-mounted Panasonic PTZ cameras in each simulation
room capture the students' activities with adjustable aiming via the control
room AMX touch panel. In addition, video output from each simulator's EKG
records the patient's vitals at a glance. All three video feeds from each
simulation room go the control room, the classroom, and the computer
recording system.
"We went with the SymNet DSP on this project because of its proven
reliability," explained Wormington. "I got into the AV business on the audio
side, working with XM Radio, and have a lot of experience with SymNet's
parent brand, Symetrix. They build solid gear and deliver clear audio, and
their design and manufacturing philosophies are maintained in SymNet."
Bonin added, "The SymNet software is also intuitive and easy to program. We
were able to save the University of Minnesota a lot of money on this project
by using the relatively cheap SymNet DSP filters and EQs to remove the
considerable HVAC noise from the building's main duct, which runs right over
the top of the simulation rooms. Mechanically isolating the rooms would have
been exorbitantly expensive."
The duo also explained that schools with patient simulators face a tradeoff
in their assignment of a technician to run the simulators. Because very few
people have in-depth AV knowledge AND in-depth medical knowledge, the choice
of technician must lean in one of these two directions. Either the
technician can work the nuts and bolts of the AV system with only surface
knowledge of the medical situations under study, or the technician can gloss
over the AV details with a deep understanding of what the students are
experiencing.
"Different schools make different choices for legitimate reasons," said
Wormington. "The University of Minnesota wanted technicians with significant
medical knowledge. With SymNet, we were able to create a system that largely
takes care of itself. SymNet's advanced automatic gain control and SPL
computer algorithms remove most of the housekeeping duties of an AV
technician with almost no perceptible loss of quality."
The new simulator rooms are up and running as of the spring semester.
Importantly, the AV system has proven transparent to the students and
instructors, allowing them to focus on the critical tasks before them
without distraction.
ABOUT SYMETRIX
For more information on professional audio products from Symetrix, SymNet,
Lucid and AirTools please call (425) 778-7728 or refer to websites, symetrix audio, sym net audio, air tools audio and lucid audio.
|
|