BOARDROOM INSTALLATION
LEIGHTON HOSPITAL - Crewe
The Project Brief
Leighton Hospital makes up one fifth of the NHS hospitals based in Mid-Cheshire; located in Crewe, it is the local hospital for many of the neighbouring towns.
Leighton have recently completed a multimillion pound project aimed at refurbishing and updating many of their facilities. As part of this project, Piranha AV were contacted by electrical contractors, Eric Charlesworth Ltd. and tasked with updating the AV systems within Leighton’s executive boardrooms.
The system in place had aged considerably and was now out of date, unreliable and, in some places, damaged. Leighton required a new system which functioned well and was easy to use. This system was required to have connections for laptops and needed to utilise some equipment that had been removed from another room. As a result of the furniture layout in the space, the connections installed couldn’t be wall-mounted, and therefore needed to be in the centre of the floor, to eliminate trailing cables; ensuring staff safety.
The Piranha Solution
The suite itself is made up of a lecture theatre/briefing room, four sensory ‘pods’ in which the software simulation takes place, two control rooms, and a command vehicle with the ability to double-up as a fifth sensory ‘pod’. The virtual incident takes place in the centre-point of the four spaces, therefore giving each pod a different perspective angle.
Piranha installed the following in each pod:
- Wall-to-wall projection to display the user’s view of the incident
- Wall-mounted speakers for sound effects
- Ceiling-mounted speakers for communication from the control room
- A link to the control room with two-way sound and a live CCTV feed
- A small display screen with a countdown/up timer
- Large plasma screens to play video footage e.g. mock news broadcasts (The two larger pods)
In the control rooms we installed:
- Eight computers
- Two large plasma screens
- Headset communication system
- Multiple DVD players
The lecture theatre/briefing room has also been fully equipped and runs off a Crestron Control system to ensure ease-of-use.
Due to the high standard of the completed training suite, and Cheshire Fire Service’s expert use of the facilities, the organisation recently received the ‘Driving Efficiency Through Technology’ award. The judges of this award commented that "This project has the potential for use across the country. It has shown significant savings and [we] were particularly impressed with the tangible benefits and the fantastic, passionate team”. The suite itself has been “hailed as one of the best training facilities of its kind in the UK.” Piranha AV want to extend their congratulations to Cheshire Fire and are extremely proud to have been a part of this award-winning project.
This state-of-the-art, award-winning Audio Visual solution was delivered within the specified time period and met all of the client’s specific requirements.