Great Western Air Ambulance Charity – Emergency Air Operations Base

Requirements

Great Western Air Ambulance Charity had recently opened the new Emergency Air Operations Base in Almondsbury in South Gloucester and were looking to add audio visual and camera & recording facilities to aid with training at the base.

The operational base includes a purpose-built training area and seminar room, as well the main hangar and garage areas where training will take place.

The main requirements of the project included:

• Provide cameras and microphones to capture video and audio within the training room
• Playback live or recorded video and audio from the training room to the seminar room and control room area
• Provide an interface to allow the wireless capture and display of the vital signs generated by the iSimulate system
• The need for an additional portable wireless camera to allow capturing of training exercises in the main hangar and garage areas in and around the helicopters and vehicles

The Solution

Working alongside the end users of the training area, we identified the optimum position for cameras within the main training room and positions for controlling and viewing the scenarios taking place.

The installation included the complete provision of all equipment and network cabling for the cSkills solution.

• Fixed Cameras – 2 x wide angle HD cameras, ceiling mounted in opposite corners, allowing a variety of views to be captured allowing for different setups and layouts
• Overhead Camera – 1 x overhead wide-angle HD camera, located in optimum position to allow an overhead capture of scenarios
• Microphones – 3 x drop down ceiling microphones, capturing the audio in the training room alongside the video
• Vital Signs – a wireless solution connected to the iSimulate iPad allows the user to transmit the vital signs to a monitor in the room and back to the main cSkills network for streaming and recording
• Quad Splitter/Switcher – located in the control room allows the user to set a quad split of the 3 cameras and vital signs feed, or alternate to full screen, picture in picture, etc.
• Talk Back Solution – a microphone in the control room allows the user to communicate with the training room to broadcast messages via a pair of speakers. Furthermore from the control room the user can plug in their own external audio source to provide ambience or background noise into the room.
• Wireless Camera – a wireless camera with clamp bracket and floor stand connects back to the main cSkills network, allowing the user to setup an additional area to record in and around the hangar and garage areas.
• cSkills Streamer – a cSkills streamer PC was provided and connected to the audio visual system in the seminar room, so the users can choose a live view or playback a recording from the training room or from the wireless camera

Summary

The cSkills system provides an easy way for the operatives at the base to setup a simulation scenario and broadcast it live or record it for playback.