Healthline Media

You may have heard the expression, “the third time’s the charm”; Well, it totally applies to the Healthline project. When Greg Karp-Nuefeld contacted us in November 2018 to tell me they were relocating again, I was surprised, as they had outgrown a space in just 2 years since their previous move. Greg and I discussed lessons learned on the previous projects to build out the new space with 15 rooms of various sizes as Zoom Rooms.

All the rooms would have scheduling panels located outside the doors, and all the new rooms, the LCD screens and cameras will have 4K capability even if they were not using the higher resolution yet.

The story begins back in 2014 when we did our first project for Healthline (their 5th Avenue location) and it was the first time for us using Zoom. Healthline HQ is in San Francisco, one of earliest corporate users for zoom, when most corporations were using hardware codecs, Zoom was one of the first software codecs available. The web cams with USB were 320 x 240 resolution which we later upgraded to 600 x 800. We used combination mic / speaker pods manufactured by Phoenix Audio, you could daisy chain up to (12) Phoenix Spider Mics, and they could be used as the audio dialer for voice calls.

For the new location, we were given a budget to deliver the (15) rooms as a design build project where we would be re-purposing some of the equipment from 28th Street at their current location on 7th avenue and 25th street where they would occupy the entire 24th floor.

From lessons learned, we discussed that all the rooms should have an acoustical treatment, and the cost for treatments should come from another budget other then AV. We recommended New York Soundproofing whom we have worked with on several projects. Liron and his team are experts and their manufacturing facilities are in Brooklyn, have been a great local resource. We highly recommend their work to all our clients.

Large Conference Room, facing east, a total of (8) QSC shallow profile speakers are used for program and far side audio playback. Two Shure MXA900 Beamforming Mics are installed on Chief RPA266 ceiling mounts, connected to two CMA443 above tile suspension plates with 3” pipes. Existing sprinkler pipes and air handlers prevented us from installing the mics flush into the ceiling, using the suspension mounts enabled us to locate the mics on the “tweens” between devices.
Large Conference Room, facing east, a total of (8) QSC shallow profile speakers are used for program and far side audio playback. Two Shure MXA900 Beamforming Mics are installed on Chief RPA266 ceiling mounts, connected to two CMA443 above tile suspension plates with 3” pipes. Existing sprinkler pipes and air handlers prevented us from installing the mics flush into the ceiling, using the suspension mounts enabled us to locate the mics on the “tweens” between devices.

For the Large Conference Room (20-person room), Greg asked us to duplicate an engineered by Zoom Room whose plans can be downloaded from Zoom. We used (2) Shure MXA-910 beamform mics on the ceiling connected over Dante to a QSC 110F DSP processor to manage the rooms audio. (8) shallow can QSC speakers are installed in the ceiling for far end audio playback. An 82” Samsung 4K LCD screen is installed at ether end of the long narrow room. (2) 49” Samsung LCD’s are installed opposite the table’s long side as additional screens which usually display shared content.

Large Conference Room, facing east, the center three rows of ceiling tiles have been replaced with 4” thick acoustical tiles which aide in absorbing reverberation echoes in the room.
Large Conference Room, facing east, the center three rows of ceiling tiles have been replaced with 4” thick acoustical tiles which aide in absorbing reverberation echoes in the room.

Below the 82” screen on the east side of the room, installed at eye level is a Logitech Rally 4K PTZ Camera. The build quality, and optics are amazing for a camera in this price range, we can capture the entire table using a couple of preset lens positions. The Mac Mini, DSP Processor and Amp reside in a Salamander Design Credenza – the architect did his homework and provided the rack in the furniture budgets.The normal fiberglass ceiling tiles have been replaced with 4” thick acoustical panels running the length of the room which provide a noticeable difference then if they were not installed in the room.

Zoom Control panel installed in an elegant Heckler Design iPad Stand, note that Heckler stand provides a 1GB wired ethernet connection over POE to supply power and data for the iPad, this prevents the battery from swelling over time when remaining on the charger 24/7. One HDMI cable is located on the tabletop for connecting a visitor’s laptop who is not on Healthline’s network, the wired screen share starts automatically when laptop is connected to HDMI cable.
Zoom Control panel installed in an elegant Heckler Design iPad Stand, note that Heckler stand provides a 1GB wired ethernet connection over POE to supply power and data for the iPad, this prevents the battery from swelling over time when remaining on the charger 24/7. One HDMI cable is located on the tabletop for connecting a visitor’s laptop who is not on Healthline’s network, the wired screen share starts automatically when laptop is connected to HDMI cable.

Most people in the meeting share content wirelessly through zoom, for guests not on the Healthline network, there is a HDMI cable on the table for wired screen sharing. Also located on the table is the Zoom Room control panel, it is an iPad installed in a Heckler Design’s tabletop mount. The Hecker mounts are a very elegant, high quality industrial design that not only looks great, it provides POE power to the iPad so that the batteries inside the iPad des not overcharge and swell up.

The medium sized conference room (10 person) was built out using existing equipment relocated from 28th street. At the front of the room is an 82” wall mounted LCD on a Chief XS1U mount. We like the Fusion mounts as they have micro-adjustment for leveling, and with the ability to slide the LCD screen left or right, enable us to mount the equipment behind the screen.

The camera is a Logitech PTZ Pro (1080P) installed below the screen. A soundbar is also installed below the LCD Screen. Above the screen is another microphone manufactured by Phoenix; they were ne of the first to market with beamform technology and was available at the time. This was also a “zoom” specified room and it worked quite well. Located on the table is a wired HDMI connection and the Zoom Control panel.

The next (12) rooms are all identical 4 to 6-person Huddle Room spaces. These rooms are treated acoustically with a mixture of ceiling and wall hung panels. Al of the rooms have dual 55” or 65” mounted on Chief mounts. In a dual screen set-up, we can “part” the two screens in the middle o gain access to the equipment installed behind the screen, makes for a neat and clan installation.

Dual 82” Samsung 4K LCD in the “All Hands” space, note simple mixer on wall for controlling voice lift.
Dual 82” Samsung 4K LCD in the “All Hands” space, note simple mixer on wall for controlling voice lift.

Each room has a Logitech Meet-up with an extension mic connected to a Mac Mini. They are good quality, cost effective rooms that work very well due to the acoustical treatments.

Popular with corporations today everyone has an “All Hands Room” or “Town Hall” which is a reconfigurable multi-purpose used for presentations, birthday parties and holiday celebrations, or a place where the entire company can get onto a Zoom Call.

This space is set-up like a Zoom Room with dual 82” screen in the front of the room. There are two Logitech Rally cameras, one facing the presenter, and the other the audience. The presenter has an assistant that can control the cameras from the iPad control panel. Two wireless microphone systems and a “Throw Mic” are included. The presenter has her choice of a handheld mic, or a clip-on wearable mic. Both voice lift (amplification of voice in the same room) and transmit audio to the far end are managed by a Biamp Tesira VT4 DSP. For Q&A, either a handheld wireless mic can be passed around, or, the client provided a “Throw Mic” which we connected.

A Throw Mic is basically a square, fuzzy, pillow branded with the company’s logo branded on it. Inside the pillow is a shock mounted microphone. The idea is to “toss” the mic to the person who has a question. Bose DS16SE surface mount speakers are installed on the cable tray in the space.

NY Tribeca Room, available for meeting.
NY Tribeca Room, available for meeting.

Located outside all the rooms are Crestron Room Scheduling panels. Indicator light glows green if the room is available, and red if it is booked. Staff can book the room from the panel, or through outlook on their desktop or personal device.

In summary, VideoSonic was able to use our experience, resources, and skill to deliver 100% of this project on time and without exceeding the budgets. It is especially important to maintain repeat business clients, they are you best from of advertising as they are usually first to suggest that they could be a great reference for us. With over 4 decades in the industry, you learn to give a little love to get a little love, and we love or clients!

 

Mount Sinai Medical School, Anesthesiology Department

For doctors entering into the field of anesthesiology, Mount Sinai offers a hands on program where medical students learn the skills by participating in “real life” simulations where they need to react to situations that can occur while a patient is sedated. Two operating rooms complete with interactive life sized “High Fidelity Human Patient Simulator” and a complete array of life support equipment are used by the students to revive a patient that has had a cardiac arrest or other conditions and to monitor them while sedated.
Because of the limited space in the “mock” operating rooms, groups of students can observe from a conference room adjacent to the operating room on several LCD screens, or in the case of overflow for a larger group, content can be sent simultaneously to a smaller conference room across the hall.

As part of a major renovations of the 8th floor Sim Labs to be scheduled during winter recess of 2019, the legacy system which we installed in 2010 was beginning to shows sign of age, in both technology, and wear and tear causing failures of equipment that was out of warrantee. The previous system which consisted of a Crestron DM32X matrix, Extron Quad Processors, and NLE format recorders (which were never used) not to mention that the floor mounted 36” deep and 42RU tall, took up a lot of valuable “real estate” in Sim Lab 1.

The only gear that we would repurpose for the legacy system are the cameras as they were 1080P (Vaddio RoboSHOT’s), the 4 control processors (they were 3 series) and the ceiling speakers. Because of the reduction in the amount of equipment used (matrix switching was replaced by IP encoding and streaming content) we were able to fit everything into a wall mounted rack. After re-arranging the furniture, the end result freed up a lot of floor space in Sim lab 1 for additional students.

Additionally, the faculty instructors were already quite familiar with user interface from the legacy system, although we were upgrading the equipment, the lessons and simulations were pretty much the same, over the years faculty had come up with “work-arounds” and other “creative solutions” (i.e., point a camera at a medical display to see it on the projector). One of the goals was to restore this functionality with the new system “transparently” to the end users.

I’m writing this article on November 9th, 2020; who would have known that exactly a year ago when we started to install the updated system exactly how timely and contemporary the system turned out to be. The client had still been using Cisco Video conferencing, and one of the goals for the system was to be able to broadcast programs and classes to a remote audience over Zoom, and to be able to record and archive content, and stream to the Mount Sinai network.

Before I get into the inner workings of the system, I would like to tell you how timely this system was – we completed the system and had trained the client days before we were locked down for Covid. The doctors at Mount Sinai were able to use the system to record and stream and meet with people remotely over zoom to develop the methods for two people to share a single respirator done in conjunction with Nasa JPL in Pasadena.

Link to Nasa JPL Video

As things started getting back to normal around July / August 2020, Mount Sinai knew that they would have students returning back to school under restricted conditions. The classes would be reduced in size by 50% and the students would alternate between attending classes or working from home. With the new system upgrade, Mount Sinai has the resources in place to support “hybrid learning” and “recording / streaming” of content that the students can download and view at any time.

Briefly, the system consists of the following devices and technologies to accomplish the goals of the system with as minimal amount of equipment possible, also being contemporary in its design using the latest technology vs the tail end of legacy technology which are acceptable common practices. Most of the equipment are fully updatable via software updates as released, and most likely will be the last microphone, speakers, or DSP they will ever purchase.

3 Epiphan Pearl 2 – used for routing, streaming, recording
8 Vaddio RoboSHOT ceiling and wall mounted cameras
2 Logitech Rally 4K USB3.0 Cameras
8 Shure MXA910 Beamforming Mics – used for voice lift, recording, and transmission to far end
8 Extron Flat Felid Ceiling Speakers (from legacy System)
1 Biamp Tesira DAN and Biamp 8 Channel Amplifier
4 Crestron CP3N Control Processors (from legacy system)
1 Kramer 8×8 HDMI Matrix (2RU) – real time routing to local displays
10 Mersive Solstice Pods (allows anyone to connect their personal device wirelessly, display and medical monitor on the network as a content). BYOM Video Conferencing and room sharing.
Displays of various sizes including 100” laser projection
1 Wired HDMI input at table for guests not on MS network
5 iPad Control panels installed in Heckler wall mounted enclosures with GB Ethernet and PoE

The system is used for a variety of lesson simulations and procedures in which the content is somewhat choreographed; images and camera shots displayed to the students with “live” narration by the instructor. A handful of students participate “hands on” by being in the Sim Lab with the instructor; other students observe and participate from an adjacent conference room. Typically, a 2nd instructor inside the conference room can also switch what the students are looking at to support what is being discussed.

The instructor in the Sim Lab speaks in his normal speaking voice; the Shure Beamform mics have been configured for voice lift; his voice is heard back over the ceiling speakers in the conference room(s); sent to the far end (over zoom), and / or simultaneously being recorded.

Students in the conference rooms can ask the instructor in the lab questions, beamform mics in the conference room ceiling are also used for voice lift and transmits the questions to the speakers in the Sim Lab, by using a PTS (push to talk) button on the control panel.

The (3) Epiphan Pearl 2’s provide a high degree of functionality, flexibility and features for the system that will continue to benefit Mount Sinai and their ability to manage and control content. The Epiphan Pearl 2’s enables the following functionality and features:

• By use of “layouts” in Epiphan provides the end user with the ability to pre-setup screen shots consisting of multiple cameras and recall of their positions and lens setting presets.
• Ability to record (6) simultaneous “streams”; content that can be used later in post-production for editing the final presentation video
• By using Epiphan “Live” software enable the instructor to remotely control the recording and capture functions from a user interface that can be operated for any place in the space.
• Epiphan can record and stream is several formats making it extremely flexible and easy to use.

In summary, VideoSonic was able to deliver a contemporary system that was able to exceed the clients goals and deliver a product on time without exceeding the budgets, if fact, the cost of the project was only 25% of the cost for the legacy system purchased on 2010 – It was a win-win for all and the client is extremely satisfied with the results.

Wall Mounted Rack in Sim
Wall Mounted Rack in Sim
Sim lab 1
Sim lab 1
Wall mounted rack, swings open to access equipment
Wall mounted rack, swings open to access equipment
Original rack from 2010 legacy system, decommissioned and replaced by wall mounted rack
Original rack from 2010 legacy system, decommissioned and replaced by wall mounted rack
NY Times, April 23rd, 2020 – Using space to simulate two patents sharing a ventilator
NY Times, April 23rd, 2020 – Using space to simulate two patents sharing a ventilator
NY Times, April 23rd, 2020 – Using space to simulate two patents sharing a ventilator
NY Times, April 23rd, 2020 – Using space to simulate two patents sharing a ventilator
Camera control panel
Camera control panel
Large Conference Room – setup for Zoom meeting
Large Conference Room – setup for Zoom meeting
Conference / Classroom – Students are able to view procedures from Sim Labs
Conference / Classroom – Students are able to view procedures from Sim Labs
Conference Room Classroom showing instructors position near room control panel
Conference Room Classroom showing instructors position near room control panel
Sim Lab 1 with Sim Lab 2 in background
Sim Lab 1 with Sim Lab 2 in background
Infant simulator
Infant simulator
Audio Control panel - press “On Air” button to route push to talk-back to Sim lab or Small Conference room.
Audio Control panel – press “On Air” button to route push to talk-back to Sim lab or Small Conference room.
Students using throat simulator, Solstice app installed on simulator allows displayed to be shared as content to any screen in space, or recorded
Students using throat simulator, Solstice app installed on simulator allows displayed to be shared as content to any screen in space, or recorded
High Fidelity Human Patient Simulators
High Fidelity Human Patient Simulators