INDUSTRY WATCH
THE INSTALLATION AT PIEDMONT ATLANTA HOSPITAL WAS UNIQUE , BECAUSE WE WERE WORKING ON A SERIES OF DIFFERENT FLOORS WITHIN THE FACILITY .
For more than a century , Piedmont Healthcare has been a recognized leader in delivering expert care . Located in Atlanta , Georgia , Piedmont Healthcare is a not-for-profit community health system composed of 11 hospitals with over 2,500 medical staff personnel and more than 22,000 employees .
Founded in 1919 , Piedmont Healthcare has garnered national acclaim with America ’ s 250 Best Hospitals Award , America ’ s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care Award and more .
In 2020 , Piedmont Healthcare embarked upon a 10- year expansion at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital , starting with a new 16-floor tower that will enable the facility to significantly increase capacity . The Marcus Tower at Piedmont Atlanta includes 408 beds and 13 new operating rooms .
Avyve , recently acquired by AVI Systems , was selected as the technology integrator at Piedmont Healthcare ’ s new facility . Blake Longsworth , Project Engineer , and Danny Rivera , Account Manager , led the project for Avyve .
“ The surgical video feed is being distributed to a larger auditorium and web-based online audience where doctors can educate medical physicians and professionals on the surgeries that are occurring in real time .”
Michael Shivers , Manager of CV Multimedia for Piedmont Heart , said : “ We have an auditorium inside the Marcus Heart and Vascular Center that can seat around 250 people . We also have a great need in broadcasting on the web for our virtual audience . In addition to utilizing the video feed as a teaching tool , we wanted a solution that allowed us to route video signals to different operating rooms and enabled the surgeon to see the person they were talking to .
“ We ’ ve never had the capability to do that before . It was essential for us to have a solution with zero latency while transmitting a reliable video feed across significantly long distances .”
Piedmont Healthcare ’ s Marcus Heart and Vascular Center incorporates over 870,000 square feet of new construction and 45,000 square feet of renovations .
The Marcus Tower at Piedmont Atlanta includes a series of surgical spaces and operating rooms . Its goal was to tie each space back to a control room that can distribute video feeds to various locations .
“ The integration was primarily in the Marcus Heart and Vascular Center ,” said Matt Adams , Area Operations Manager for AVI Systems .
“ There are currently six operating rooms that are wired for broadcasting in this facility , and Piedmont Healthcare wanted to utilize a video feed in the operating rooms to assist during surgery and distribute the video to a larger room for teaching purposes .
“ The installation at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital was unique , because we were working on a series of different floors within the facility ,” said Adams .
“ The operating rooms are located on a different floor than the auditorium , so we had to overcome a longdistance distribution for the video feeds . We selected Visionary ’ s PacketAV Matrix Series because of the ability of this particular product to distribute a reliable feed across multiple floors . We integrated various solutions from Visionary ’ s PacketAV Matrix Series , including 18 wall plate encoders , 49 encoders and 22 decoders , to create a solution that was incredibly flexible and provided a simplified user experience .”
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