According to Vito Randazzo, President of JVN Systems, making the 60-seat facility successful depended on giving it powerful but extremely easy controls, to ensure that even presenters running it for the first time would be comfortable. “The lectern gives you control of the room as a lecture hall, as well as for four camera video-teleconferencing,” he says. “The key was the rear-located central control room connected to a Crestron TPS-6000 control panel, which does VGA and video running through the touch panel, as well as control and Boeckler Pointmaker. The latter function is what we call ‘John Madden technology’ – it allows speakers to circle any image on the touch panel with a finger, and everyone involved in the videoconference will be able to see it.”

The control room makes good use of what had previously been an 8’x10’ supply closet, featuring a full blown Crestron CNMSX Pro console designed by JVN. Besides providing for a deeper level of control by a media services department employee, if needed, the control room serves as the uplink / downlink connection and hub to the outside world. “It’s on the network, so if a technical person needs to monitor the system, reboot or control the DVD / VCR functions, they can do it offsite through an IP connection,” Randazzo says. “In that way, it’s ideal for the complex environment and limited staff at Stony Brook, because they can monitor these systems centrally.”

The Atkins Center shows the action in the room with Sony EVID30 P/T/Z cameras, and captures x-rays and other documents via an ELMO EV-X visual presenter, with all projections going through a Sony PX-50 projector. JVC 9” monitors help complete the video picture. “One of our primary video considerations was making sure that the room was lit bright enough for a videoconference,” says Randazzo. “In many cases you may want to dim the lights in order to make an image more vivid, but in a videoconference you want more light on the participants.”

Audio in the Atkins Center is handled by a Polycom EF2280 Vortex mixer, Beyerdynamic mics, Crown CT-410 2-channel amp, and speakers from JBL and Fostex. “When you do videoconferencing, the ability to listen to people with crystal clarity is critical,” Randazzo points out. “The audio component has to be at least as good as talking over the phone, because if you can’t hear what someone is saying, you’re not going to listen to them.

“Balancing a room acoustically for videoconferencing is very important, and that’s where the Vortex mixer comes in. It has everything you need in one piece – notch filters, gains, EQs, noise cancellation – and when you listen to that room, it sounds like you’re right next to the people there. It’s just a phenomenal piece of equipment.”

The Atkins Center’s solid performance has resulted in a larger role for the room than originally intended. “This facility is not limited to just hooking up with the VA,” Cortegiano says. “We’ve had sessions on bioterrorism and risk management downlinked through here, and we’ve made it available to the entire School of Medicine. We regularly have people arguing over the schedule.”

Both client and contractor credit each other with possessing a high level of communications skills, which led directly to the creation of an exceptionally useful A/V facility in the Atkins Center. “The way the project went from design to guild was the biggest factor of success in this job,” says Randazzo. “Stony Brook was able to conceptualize and translate their thoughts and ides – we took those concepts, designed them into the system and built it with no middle man. In the end we were able to turn over the keys to a very high-end, comprehensive solution.” “JVN Systems were excellent: They gave us a realistic budget and timeline, and they stayed within both,” Cortegiano adds. “They spent the necessary time up front on planning. Those meetings were the most important part of the whole project, because if they didn’t understand what I was trying to accomplish and then work to meet those goals, it would have been just another conference room.”

 

The control room makes good use of what had previously been an 8x10 – foot supply closet, featuring a full-blown Crestron CNMSX Pro console designed by JVN.

Designed and built by JVN Systems, the Harold L. Atkins, M.D. Diagnostic Imaging Learning Center was initially created to meet the specific communication needs of doctors and students at the Radiological Department at Stony Brook University Hospital, who rotate regularly to the Long Island State Veteran’s Home 20 miles away.

The lectern gives instructors control of the room as a lecture hall, as well as for 4-camera video/conferencing.