Macclesfield General Hospital – Simulation Centre

Requirements

As part of the refurbishment of the New Alderley House building at Macclesfield General Hospital and relocation of the Library & Knowledge Service, cSkills was evaluated and chosen to provide the audio visual streaming and capture capabilties within the new facility.

The main requirements of the project included:

• Cameras and microphones to be positioned at various points within the sim room, capturing what happens at the bed and surrounding environment
• The ability to view live and play back any recordings on the system from the local debrief room
• Provide the ability to view and capture the vital signs generated from a manikin simulator at each bed
• Audio talkback solution required to allow the control room to ‘talk’ via a speaker at the bed and play in background audio to replicate a real hospital ward
• Phones in the control room and the sim room to allow capture of phone calls within a scenario
• Portable system with high quality camera and audio capture for insitu use elsewhere around the hospital

The Solution

• 3 x cSkills 1080p PTZ cameras were installed into the sim room allowing a variety of views. Although it is a relatively small room, the wide angle lens on the camera allows for a full and complete view
• Drop down microphones connected back to a digital mixer capture the audio in high quality. Audio capture can be supplemented by the rechargeable mini wireless tie clip microphone system
• A cSkills vital signs interface is located at the head of the bed which can be used to make a connection from manikin simulator laptop, tablet, iPad etc. The resulting data generated whether it be an Ops screen, X-Ray or something else is capture and made available for live streaming and capture alongside each camera
• The talkback solution comprises of 2 x speakers (with associated cSkills audio decoder) mounted at the head the bed so that the control room operator can simultaneously play in background audio and act as the voice of the manikin. A wireless earpiece is also included to enable communication from control room to facilitator in the sim room. This audio channel is private and not streamed or recorded
• Phone system comprises a handset in the control room desk and a handset wall mounted in the sim room. The phone audio is captured and fed into the digital mixer so any conversation can be heard and captured clearly
• cSkills USB encoder was provided in the control room to allow the video and audio feeds from the system to be available to broadcast over video conferencing platforms such as Microsoft Teams. Capturing the HDMI feed generated from cSkills Streamer PC, the encoder provides a simple USB connection which an NHS laptop can connect to and select the cSkills video and audio feeds
• cSkills patient glasses encoder was provided to give an alternative ‘patients eye view’. This mobile solution can be plugged into a designated cSkills connection point near the bed and the glasses with inbuilt mini camera can be worn by a patient actor or manikin
• The local seminar room had an existing audio-visual setup with touch screen display so our cSkills streamer PC was installed and connected to this so that students can watch live or playback any recordings from the ward
• A cSkills portable system with 2 x wireless 1080p cameras was provided. A small, light-weight and easily moveable system was required to allow someone on their own to carry around the hospital on their own if required

Summary

The brand-new facility now has a flexible and easy to use system to record, view live, and playback to aid in simulation and training in a realistic hospital environment. The portable system further enables flexibility for delivering simulation in the hospital. Acessories such as the glasses module and the wireless mics can be shared between the portable and fixed systems