Palmetto Health Staff & Patients Benefit From Z-Band Solution
CHALLENGE
Palmetto Health had been using traditional coax cable along with an analog video distribution system and was in need of a solution that could support high-definition displays. They also needed a system which would be more stable and require less maintenance and hassle than coax.
SOLUTION
Don Morton, Director of Instructional Media Services at Palmetto Health, began by researching many different options. One of the options considered was the full DirecTV HD video distribution system, which sends a 720p signal on a fiber backbone. Morton visited the Z-Band booth at InfoComm, the largest tradeshow in the professional audio-visual industry, and was introduced to the solutions that ZBand offers. Palmetto representatives flew to Carlisle to visit Z-Band company headquarters and get a first-hand evaluation of the system. When comparing Z-Band to the other solutions Palmetto had considered, Morton recognized that there were very few systems out there which possessed the capabilities of the Z-Band solution.
When Palmetto was ready to decide on a video distribution solution; Morton determined that Z-Band’s solution was the one to move forward with, and recommended Z-Band to World Vision the integrator working with Palmetto. The first Palmetto facility to install the Z‑Band system was Palmetto Health Baptist Parkridge in Irmo, SC. World Vision is currently cabling the facility at Palmetto Health Baptist in Columbia, SC for a Z-Band system that will go live in the fall of 2017. Palmetto Health and World Vision are working on plans to expand the Z-Band system throughout the Palmetto Health system in the coming years.
“The best part of the Z-Band system is that it keeps the signal integrity, with no flaky channels like we had in our coax plant. Once we put it in, it’s working and we can add other features to the system like integration with Emergency Alert and the ability to use a PC to access each HUB in the system. It just works!”
- Don Morton, Director of Instructional Media Services, Palmetto Health
RESULTS
In the three and a half years since the initial installation of the Z-Band system at Baptist Parkridge, only one balun has ever had to be replaced and no major issues have occurred. Morton and the rest of the Palmetto Health team no longer need to worry about varying signal integrity as they did with their previous distribution system. The self-balancing capabilities of the system have allowed David Lee and World Vision to install the system and leave it alone. The Z-Band system easily and fully integrates with Palmetto’s existing pillow speaker system and allows staff members and patients to control the TVs throughout the hospitals with a standard remote. It also fully integrates with the hospitals’ Emergency Alert System, which is a critical element of any healthcare operation.
“I absolutely would recommend Z-Band – I haven’t seen any technologies since going with Z-Band that would cause me to look another direction for their distribution system. Z-Band works well for healthcare systems and is a great technology to support everything a modern hospital is looking to do.”
- David Lee, World Vision