The Summary
Location: Singapore Service: Audio-visual Design, Physical Infrastructure
Completion Date: August 2022
PTS Singapore was engaged by Medtronic, a MedTech company to help design the AV and IT infrastructure for the Medtronic Customer eXperience Center (MCXC) - a world-class, state-of-the-art customer experience center that fosters an ecosystem of healthcare collaboration and drives access to the latest in healthcare technology and training.
PTS helped build the IT infrastructure to support the leading-edge technologies utilised at the experience centre. This includes robotics, remote presence as well as augmented and virtual reality capabilities.
The project kicked off in July 2021 and was completed in August 2022 before its official launch in November 2022.
Design Highlights
Arrival Space
Visitors/guests who set foot at the experience centre are welcomed by brand videos that are set to play on four 86" displays mounted on both sides of the walls.
Set across the arrival space is a sofa lounge and 4.6 M (Width) x 2.4 M (Height) video wall that is curved slightly at around 7 degrees to provide an inviting, immersive viewing experience for visitors/guests. The video wall can be used as a digital backdrop and the sofa setting removed to cater for events at this space. Users can also bring their own devices to conduct presentations on the fly via a localised HDMI connection.
The content of these displays can be uploaded by users onto AppSpace and pushed to the Brightsign media players for the various signage contents.
Ceiling mounted speakers that can be strategically angled were installed around the sofa lounge area to amplify the audio of the video wall.
Digital Operating Theatre The digital operating theatre is a space that breaks geographical and spatial limitations as it allows healthcare professionals (HCPs) to attend remote trainings/simulated surgeries.
PTZ cameras were installed and mounted at strategic locations on a ceiling mounted articulating arm to allow for the recording and/or livestreaming of the trainings/simulated surgeries to other locations.
The PTZ cameras can be adjusted via a dedicated camera controller or the AV touch panel, which can also be used for source selection and routing.
The displays in the theatre can display the PTZ camera feeds or be used for video conferencing (VC) .
Hybrid-ready Auditorium
Handheld and lavalier clip-on wireless microphones were provisioned for the both the digital operating theatre and the auditorium to allow users to address the audience via the speaker system or communicate to the far end of the auditorium during video / unified conferencing (VC/UC) sessions.
The speaker system comprises a dedicated tweeter and driver which allows for high fidelity audio reproduction as well as an evenly distributed sound and premium audio playback quality.
All audio are managed by the audio mixing console to ensure the audio quality consistency.
PTZ cameras were installed to capture presenter and audience views and used as a VC camera if required. The AV touch panel facilitates video routing, camera and lighting/blinds control.
During fire and emergencies, audio control of the digital operating theatre as well as the auditorium can be overridden by emergency voice alarm communications (EVAC) over a 24V trigger or contact closure.
Digital Content Studio (Studio50)
The digital content studio is well equipped with a professional setup that include studio cameras, professional studio lighting, teleprompter, camera cue system, speaker floor monitors, laptop connectivity, wireless and lavalier microphones.
All AV connectivity and camera points were provisioned in strategically planned out raised floor service outlet boxes to allow for furniture and filming flexibility, to accommodate various event layouts within the space.
The control room allow studio operators to perform studio operations and manage events over hardware and cue call operations in an enclosed space.
Visual
The studio can receive live AV feeds from the auditorium, digital operating room and training rooms for recording, and also route out content from these rooms to the café if needed. Sufficient monitor displays were installed to allow the operator to effectively monitor events in session and to facilitate multi view, camera and laptop source content viewing.
The video switcher facilitates content and camera source switching, powered over a customized PC loaded with the vMix software. Multiple remote guests can be easily added into high AV quality virtual calls with the presenter via the vMix platform in real-time.
Camera and Chromakey Curtains Setup
A teleprompter and reinforcement displays were added to the camera setup to support the presenters to allow them to view remote speakers, scripts, program, conference far end feeds as well as other content during a recording session.
A camera tally-light is attached and synced to the camera via the vMix platform to provide presenters a visual indicator on whether the camera is live or in preview during a live stream or video recording.
The studio has the option to deploy mobile chromakey curtains to create a bust/full-length chroma green screen for insertion of virtual backdrops/effects for chroma key production. The chroma key composition can be configured in advance to allow for multiple pre-set changes to support event scene changes.
Audio
Wireless microphones and miniature lavalier clip-on microphones were provisioned for presenters for audio amplification during recordings.
The studio's audio is managed by a dedicated audio mixing console and adjustments of the microphone/content audio can be made during the live/recorded sessions to ensure audio quality consistency.
On-site and control room operators are able to communicate and engage in camera feed cueing over the intercom system.
Lighting
The dedicated lighting console facilitates all studio lighting control including the adjustments on RGB lighting, temperature and brightness. The lighting fixtures can be repositioned to allow flexibility on the various lighting setups.
Post-Production
A dedicated computer loaded with post-production editing software is provided for the processing of the recording content. The recorded content can be saved onto the NAS storage device and loaded with a dedicated hard-disk slot running on RAID10 (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) configuration to provide for data redundancy. Holoscape
Three 75" mobile cart interactive displays were provisioned to playback content from the Oculus and Microsoft Hololens mixed reality devices.
Visiting guests are able to dive into the healthcare metaverse and interact with fellow HCPs for remote discussions and trainings.
M-Cafe
A re-deployed 50” display is installed in portrait mode near the cafe's counter to serve as a digital menu to the guests.
A larger, 86” Interactive Display was installed near the seating area, allowing playback of digital signage content uploaded from AppSpace. The content can be switched over to display camera feeds from the auditorium or the digital content studio. Users can also connect their bring-your-own-device (BYOD) devices over HDMI for presentations, townhalls or other events conducted held at the cafe. The audio played at the cafe comes from the content of the interactive display or the playlists uploaded onto the digital signal processor.
M-Connect
The M-Connect is a multi-purpose space designed for TED Talk-inspired presentations. Users have the flexibility to display two different video sources and connect their laptop over any of the service outlet boxes for presentations.
The interactive display can serve as a standalone whiteboard and act as a keyboard/mouse that is controlled over a laptop.
M-Hive
The M-Hive is a space for ideation and collaboration equipped with mobile cart interactive displays with dedicated PCs and Logitech rally bars.
Users can make UC calls over the dedicated PC and move the mobile cart setup to various areas of the room during collaboration to utilise any of the two (2) Logitech Scribe whiteboard camera in the room via USB connection.
Training Rooms
Trainings and meetings can be conducted in the three training rooms which can send / receive feed from the Studio. The rooms' AV recordings can be shared across rooms and also combined for a better learning and collaborative experience.
Rooms are equipped with HDMI and USB connectivity to facilitate UC. The two VOIP lines and Codec setups are shared across all training rooms and the VGA connection – an existing legacy connectivity point – is retained to minimise modification works.
Users will be able to operate all the training rooms using the dedicated wall-mounted AV touch panel mounted on the wall, or over the existing dedicated iPad.
A new lighting keypad was installed for in-room lighting control.
Meeting Rooms
The rooms were provisioned with Logitech Rallybar, Logitech Scribe solutions, in-room speakers, microphones as well as USB and HDMI connectivity points to allow for BYOD conferencing through VC platforms.
Overcoming the Challenges
Long Lead Time: The lead time of the AV equipment ranges from as short as 4 weeks to 48 weeks, which meant that it would be especially challenging to deliver and commission the rooms in time.
PTS Singapore has well-established direct connections with manufacturers and frequently liaised with them for supply chain information. In anticipation of the long lead time needed for the AV equipment, the team reached out to the manufacturers early to secure the exact quantity, brand and model of the equipment needed via a proof of intent. After the contractor was onboarded, PTS actively tracked and managed the lead time for the delivery to ensure the timeline for the room commissioning is met.
Design Changes and Delays: The project was extended due to the onboarding of contractor and additional project requirements in relation to the branding, user journey and experience of the space. There were also re-designs and multiple design changes during the duration of the project
To mitigate the long lead time needed for procurement of the AV equipment, the AV tender package was awarded separately and before the main contractor's tender package.
PTS worked closely with the client and specified equipment and use cases as well as the management of the challenges. The experience center was successfully launched in November and featured in local/regional news for its contribution to the local healthcare eco-system, use of cutting-edge technology and outreach programmes.