PRO AV Magazine Features Graybow Communications Group as a Winner in the PRO AV Spotlight Awards

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 19, 2008 – The award—one of only two Judges’ Spotlight Awards—was bestowed on Graybow for the Adopt-A-Room project at the University of Minnesota Fairview Hospital. According to PRO AV Magazine, this project was recognized as one of the best professional audio/video installations designed and was given a special Judges’ Spotlight Award for being a unique application worthy of singling out.

       To initiate the Adopt-A-Room project, the team at Graybow worked closely with architects at Perkins + Will in Minneapolis and Adopt A Room, a White Bear Lake, Minn.-based foundation formed by Brian Schepperle and David Millington, two fathers who lost their daughters to chronic childhood illnesses. Adopt A Room uses donations from corporate sponsors to remodel pediatric hospital rooms to give children facing extended stays a unique experience.

   Contractors and organizers met with a group of patients and their parents to discuss technology options that would make their hospital stays more pleasant. Then, AV consultants at Graybow went to work developing a design that would incorporate these most-requested features. “Our team took the patients’ input and used technology to create a children’s wonderland in what is normally considered a scary environment for kids,” says Bruce Graybow, president of Graybow Communications Group. “We’re proud to be part of a project that helps brighten the day for children with chronic illnesses.”

   The two Adopt-A-Room suites at the University of Minnesota Fairview Hospital feature of a variety of unique options. Each room is encircled with programmable LED lights that allow patients to change the color of the walls to suit their moods. In front of the hospital bed, two 23-inch LG LCD and one 55-inch LG LCD monitors are connected to video inputs for a Panasonic VCR/DVD player, Extron AVT-100N CATV tuner and game console. Mounted on the hospital’s roof is a Panasonic PTZ exterior color camera so patients that are confined indoors can see the outside world. At the nurses’ station, a 17-inch AMX touch panel controls the AV, lights and temperature in the room, and features a digital message board so children can notify the nurses when they want privacy, and nurses can check charts without entering the room. For parents, a separate “home office” area that includes a computer, Internet connection, fax and another AMX touch panel, is enclosed behind a sliding glass door.

      Identified as a favorite project by the judges at PRO AV Magazine, the Adopt-A-Room suites are also garnering praise from parents and patients at the University of Minnesota Fairview Children's Hospital as well.