Details
Crestron has teamed up with Orbis International, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that works in developing countries, to fight blindness. Crestron’s state-of-the-art technology is embedded throughout Orbis’ next generation Flying Eye Hospital and plays an instrumental role in training eye care professionals across the globe. The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital® travels to underserved areas to treat patients at risk of losing their sight, while also offering local doctors the chance to be trained from the plane. The mobile teaching hospital features an onboard ophthalmic training center, which hosts a 46-seat classroom, full surgical suite, operating theater, laser treatment room, communications center, recovery room, and audiovisual/IT room. As an Orbis partner, Crestron has provided over $300,000 in A/V and automation solutions, in addition to integration services, to enable the medical staff to operate on their patients, while allowing other local doctors to observe procedures from the classroom.
THE CHALLENGE
On board the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital, Orbis’s Volunteer Faculty (medical
professionals) and clinical staff travel worldwide to share their knowledge and
expertise with local eye care teams. Orbis requires the most effective and reliable technology solutions to provide the best training opportunities to eye care professionals in communities around the world that need it most. To ensure training participants are able to build their skills to provide quality care to patients in their own communities, Orbis is dedicated to keeping the plane in prime condition and updating the equipment on the aircraft when necessary. The latest maintenance check prompted the Orbis team to explore upgrading the Crestron equipment on board.
THE SOLUTION
While removing modules on the aircraft for regularly scheduled maintenance, the Orbis team decided it was the perfect opportunity to refurbish and upgrade the plane’s AV systems. With the donation of Crestron technology, and the help of ControlWorks Consulting, the Orbis team began to upgrade the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital. Crestron technology and innovation have continued to permeate training activities on board the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital. With Crestron technology, the aircraft’s team can focus on its goal to train eye care professionals in areas with the greatest need.
THE TECHNOLOGY
Unique factors such as weight were a consideration in this project since cutting even a few pounds could result in fuel savings. The compact size and light weight of the Digital Graphics Engines combined with the LED backlighting on the touch screens made Crestron an easy choice. The many Crestron Digital Graphics Engines combined with the large format Crestron touch screens allow for hybrid use as digital signage when tours
are being given.
The Orbis Flying Eye Hospital is powered up in the morning and powered off at the end of each day, so resilience and time-to-ready are more sensitive concerns than in other projects routed by DigitalMedia™ technology. The Crestron control system and DigitalMedia content distribution provide an integrated system that allows the focus to remain on education, with the technology being a tool rather than a distraction. DigitalMedia gives the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital the ability to accept and route a variety of video formats – such as SDI, HDMI®, DVI, HDBaseT®, and even legacy analog video formats — in a single self-contained chassis, without the need for outboard converters and adapters.
RESULTS
The need to function reliably anywhere on the planet, including lesstechnologically developed locations, is not part of the scope for a typical AV/Control project, but Crestron solutions help the Orbis Flying Eye Hospital achieve this task. Having the first ever Mobile Simulation Training Center outfitted for an aircraft, Orbis needed to integrate the best technology Crestron has to offer — and the technology has delivered.
