Universitaires Saint-Luc Uses HaiVision HD Encoding Solution

HaiVision Network Video has announced that its hai1020 series network video systems, equipped with the company's low-latency MAKO-HD H.264 codec, are being used by Belgium's Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc to enable live transmission of video and medical imaging from the operating room to a conference room on the opposite side of the hospital campus.
The hai1020 systems installed at the Louvain-en-Woluwe campus near Brussels support bi-directional delivery of HD video with latency under 70 milliseconds, enabling visiting surgeons to interact with doctors in the operating room as they demonstrate surgical techniques.
Philippe Meurrens, Head of the Audiovisual Centre at Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, said: "Our surgeons and facilities are among the best in Europe, and doctors come from all over the world to spend two or three days watching live transmissions from our operating room. The intuitive interface of our HaiVision system makes it very easy to make this live connection, and its use of the highly efficient MAKO-HD H.264 codec ensures that we can provide very good image quality at bit rates of just 3 to 5 Mbps. Seeing how easy it is to connect two points over a network, other hospitals are expressing a lot of interest in what we're doing."
The HaiVision encoders at Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc leverage the hospital's existing IP network to deliver video from point to point. As a result, Meurrens was able to establish live HD transmission very quickly, without installing new cabling in the operating room.
Because the hai1020 systems support dual streams, doctors in the conference room can view images from medical imaging sources as they watch the doctor performing the surgical procedure. The low latency of the system allows visitors and surgeons to engage in discussion without distracting delays or the need for echo cancellation.
In addition to using the hai1020 units to support on-campus training, the hospital has extended its HD video delivery, transmitted over a dedicated Internet link, to a second university campus located 27 kilometeres away at Louvain-La-Neuve. Meurrens is exploring possibilities for leveraging a similar system to transmit video from Brussels to clinics in other countries.
Meurrens added: "The 'plug-and-play' logic of the HaiVision video delivery system is ideal for this application, making it easy to set up and transmit video between sites over IP. The company's solutions have worked very well for us so far, and we find the future possibilities for this solution to be very existing."
The hai1000 series TelePresence codec systems from HaiVision support highly efficient MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video compression at unsurpassed levels, enabling communication of HD (up to 1080p) or SD video and super wideband audio across IP networks at bandwidths anywhere from 256 kbps to 10 Mbps. The company's MAKO-HD "zero latency" codec is the highest performance H.264 codec available for HD, supporting up to 1080 resolution and an imperceptible 70 milllisecond end-to-end latency.
(KMcA/BMcc)