NHS Rotherham Operates Inhouse TV with ONELAN

Sept. 23, 2011 - PRLog -- For Release: September 2011

NHS Rotherham Operates Inhouse TV
with ONELAN  

Sept 2011…..NHS Rotherham’s QTV service is a television network that distributes health information (signposting service information, health promotion campaigns etc) to television screens located within patient waiting areas throughout the Rotherham borough. It is designed, developed and managed by NHS Rotherham Creative Media Services (CMS). Starting from programme production through to networked distribution and broadcast, QTV is run very much as a public service TV station with its own unique channel brand.

NHS Rotherham have been delivering content via QTV since 1997.  It has evolved from VHS tapes, through to DVDs (delivered every two months), and finally the current ONELAN digital signage solution. The CMS production team researched alternative programme delivery systems before establishing the ONELAN system as an excellent solution to meet their needs.

The CMS production team wanted a very exacting system to meet their requirements; they needed to work closely with their equipment suppliers 'Universal AV' and ONELAN to ensure that ONELAN Net Top Box (NTB) processor speeds and CAT5 network issues were resolved and the screen system was not compromised by the strain of continuous video processing.

Programmes are scheduled into the daily play list located on one of the ONELAN Net-Top-Box (NTB) 5005’s. The production team keeps two NTB’s in the studio, one as a test bed for quality control/training purposes and the other as their main publisher box. Once encoded, content is published and uploaded to a dedicated FTP server. Finally overnight downloads are made across the local NHS IT network to avoid interruptions to critical clinical IT activities and maximise usage of NHS bandwidth. This results in a seamless public facing information service that can be updated and refreshed daily if required.

The TV screens are subdivided into zones, which display continuous video programmes, local breaking news in the form of scrolling text, along with time and a tickertape for adhoc information specific to each screen location. Hourly updates of news and current affairs through the medium of BBC News24 are delivered through the freeview TV input available on receiving sites’ ONELAN NTB 5005s.  

CMS worked hard to find the best encryption algorithm for their video media to maintain the quality of the finished programmes. Tony Bates, Videographer and Deputy Manager of CMS, said
"We had to raise our game with production values and content management, especially as our locally produced content is up for direct comparison with the production values of the BBC News24 programmes, which hit the screens at the top of each hour, and then run seamlessly into QTV programmes. NHS Rotherham take it as a great compliment that the public think local content is produced by some London based outfit, when asked in a recent service survey which informed an academic research project."

A research project “Building Sustainable Health Capital in Rotherham” conducted in partnership with Manchester Business School, showed how very effective this form of information delivery system is in gaining real terms health capital.

Compared to other forms of receiving health information it was rated by patients as only second to receiving trusted information directly from a doctor or other clinician.

About NHS Rotherham
NHS Rotherham is responsible for the commissioning of health services across the borough and ensuring that taxpayers’ money is spent wisely to meet the health needs of the people of Rotherham.  Working in partnership is vital to the efficient and effective running of services and NHS Rotherham has a track record of strong relationships with other service providers and statutory and voluntary agencies.

About ONELAN
ONELAN develops network appliances for standalone and end-to-end Digital Signage network solutions. The Net-Top-Box is a mul­timedia, multi-zoned solution capable of Touch Interactivity. With a browser based user inter­face, the system is fully multi-lingual and capable of dis­playing both stored media and live media e.g RSS feeds, webpages and broadcast TV or locally streamed video. Further mem­bers of the product family cater for Enterprise network management and integration with external data sources.

ONELAN’s NTBs are now installed in a wide variety of organisations such as retail, schools, hospitals, and government buildings, as well as some well-known corporates such as Vodafone, Virgin Holidays and TalkTalk.

ONELAN Ltd is based in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
Visit www.onelan.com for further details.

Press Contact details: Marion Bourne
email: marion.bourne@onelan.com, phone: +44 (0) 1491 411400

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ONELAN has developed leading edge hardware appliances and software
products on a Linux platform to the world of Digital Signage. The players are marketed under the Net-Top-Box product brand.