This project involves the rennovation of two buildings to create four Clinical Skills labs for group and part task teaching, three consultation rooms used for examination, OSCE and communication skills, as well as three simulated ward areas for hi-fidelity patient simulation and group work, and three observation rooms to drive all simulations. A separate building houses a mock-up flat and ambulance plus a seminar room.

Drama by Design were engaged by the University to carry out the detailed design, co-ordination project management, testing and commissioning of all the AV systems throughout the buildings. This included both custom designed teaching AV systems and the Simulation Management system which incorporated a video capture/playback/de-brief system for monitoring student work.

All rooms are equipped with IP cameras, micropohones and video capture devices. With cameras above every bed bay and in every room simulations and scenarios can now be streamed live for debrief and reflection. They can also be saved to central servers for review and reusable content either on or off site.

There are three hospital wards fully equipped to mimic a real life hospital environment. The rooms incorporate a full AV system with a display above each bed bay that can either be used to display vital signs or used to display content from the nurses station when the spaces are being used in a teaching scenario.

Wards are also equipped with overhead loudspeakers linked to both the teaching AV system and the simulation sytem. This allows the same speakers to be used for replay of program sound for AV content or to be used for talkback from the observation rooms. Loudspeakers are also provided at each bed bay for replay of patient voice for the simulators.

Patient simulator manikins can be connected to the system to enable the vital signs to be recorded alongside the cameras.

The building also features five clinical teaching spaces each equipped with cameras and microphones for recording. They also incorporate a full teaching AV system with lectern, projector and screen plus four height adjustable repeater/touch screens. This enables the room to be used as one large teaching space or for students to break away into groups and work around the touch screens.

One of the key aspects of this project is the flexibility of linking the simulation management system and the teaching AV systems. This not only enables any source to be routed to any display, but also enables the content for any lesson to be recorded.