University Hospital of Jena

The hospital Universitätsklinikum Jena is based in the city of Jena, situated in the eastern part of the German federal state, Thüringen. The medical faculty at the University of Jena was one of the first departments to be created. Over the course of centuries, the hospital has expanded and been re-organised several times. Today, it is one of the biggest employers in the area and its staff consists of 4,300 doctors, assistant physicians, medical technicians, nurses and other employees. Currently, 1,900 medical and dentistry students are enrolled at the University. In all, the hospital is composed of 26 clinics treating 250,000 patients per year.

Pre-existing situation & UTCFS’s role

The authority of the German federal state of Thüringen decided to establish a new facility for the University Hospital of Jena in the late 1990s. The foundation stone was laid in May 1999 and the new clinic began operating in March 2004. To guarantee medical service for an area of one million inhabitants, a wide range of medical technology was installed. Operating rooms, examination rooms, lecture halls and seminars had to be equipped with video and audio transmission. The company Volker + Wald GmbH, an installer of UTCFS products, won the project for the installation of the audiovisual media.

UTCFS’s solution

With transmission distances reaching up to 500 metres, the solution had to consist of fibre transmission for all kinds of signals. Students can follow medical lectures and operations by using video and audio transmissions over fibre to the lecture halls. Each of the 13 operating rooms and 21 examination rooms has at least one audio and two video links connected to a control room. All of these signals can be switched from the control room to the lecture halls (two with a capacity of 400 persons each) and to the seminar rooms (18 with a capacity of 30 persons each). During aptitude exercises, the responsible doctor wears a headset to comment on the various procedures used during the operation. The lecture halls have an audio transmission linked to the operating rooms for queries from the audience. The total fibre installation consists of 45 audio and 36 S-video transmission links. UTCFS’s fibre solution allows the University of Jena to provide sound and image of the highest quality during its classes.