North Memorial Health Care
North Memorial Health Care Expands Executive Conference Room
North Memorial is 518-bed medical center providing services to communities in the northwest Twin Cities area and throughout Minnesota. It has eight primary care clinics located in the Northwest suburbs, as well as Outpatient Centers that include cancer, imaging, radiology and education services.
The Challenge: Expanding the Board of Trustees Conference Room
Annette Ozer, Executive Administrator to the CEO at North Memorial, knew for several years that the organization had an issue with the executive conference room used for the Board of Trustees meetings – there wasn’t room for enough chairs around the table. At the most, 18 chairs could be uncomfortably set around the table and there were often over 20 attendees to the meetings. The easily-stated solution was to expand the room, but realizing that dream would be anything but easy. Besides the required infrastructure construction, the audio and video technology would need to be enhanced and upgraded to make sure that all attendees would be able to view and hear a presentation or discussion.
The Solution: Going from 18 to 26
Ozer realized that the room could not be widen and could only be lengthen. And, it could only be lengthen if she sacrificed her office which was located conveniently next to the conference room. The design for the expanded conference room would also include the construction of a new office space for her near the new conference room.
North Memorial worked with BWBR Architects in St. Paul, MN to design the layout and amenities for the remodeled conference room and partnered with Alpha Video & Audio in Edina, MN to design and install the audio and video systems.
Expanding the conference room from 30 feet to 44 feet so that 26 chairs could easily fit around the table poised some difficult issues for Alpha Video when designing both the video systems and the audio systems. Alpha Video consulted with Ozer and Jodi Heurung, Media Manager at North Memorial, on defining the specifications for the AV systems.
The longer room required the installation of two NEC 46” side monitors so that everyone at the table is able to easily view a presentation or video. To fully support HD video and wide-screen presentations, a Sanyo 3800-lumen, WXGA projector replaced the old existing projector. It is installed in a Chief ceiling mount. Another update to the video system required the accommodation of a wide range of laptop computers with HDMI connections. HDMI interface connections were added to the Altinex Tilt’n Plug boxes in the middle of the table and a Kramer PT-571 switcher designed for HDMI communication was installed in the equipment rack.
The expanded conference room required extensive modifications to the audio systems. Two additional Audio-Technica boundary microphones are added to the table to match the existing four microphones. Four additional Tannoy ceiling speakers provide sound coverage to the entire room. The additional speakers and microphones enabled Alpha Video to divide the room into two zones. The zones allow the audio from the table top microphones on one half of the table to be reinforced for the other end of the table without feedback from the closer speakers. This effective design means that a participant speaking at one end of the table is easily heard by the attendees at the other end of the table. The placement of speakers and microphones are equally successful for audio conference calls which are important to the Board of Trustees.
Tight AV Installation Schedule
One of the most important components in the remodeling job was the purchase of a new high-quality table top. Unfortunately, the delivery of this crucial component took longer than expected. The delay in the delivery of the table meant that Alpha Video’s installation schedule was compressed. Commenting on the schedule change, Matt Brand, Alpha Video’s Project Manager, said, “The experience and expertise of our installation technicians really saved us on this project. We were able to pull a technician or two from another project and they all worked together as a well-oiled machine to get everything done on time.”
The very next day after Alpha Video completed the installation, the North Memorial Board of Trustees held their first meeting in their remodeled executive conference room. The room received rave reviews from all of the attendees.