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     Announcements Press Releases In The News |
Autumn 2003 Report If you would like more information on any of these projects or stories, please contact Jeff Wilde, Partner, at (212) 725-6800 or jwilde@smwinc.com. Managing Complex Operating Room Technology Taking the Gamble Out India: One of the Largest Network Operations Centers in the World Building Security Consulting Services Added Hot Again Technology Update: Data Centers Managing Complex Operating Room Technology Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City
Architects: Jeffrey Berman Architects, Granary Associates, KMD Architects, New York City Multimedia, audiovisual: Shen Milsom & Wilke, New York City; Pete Christensen, project manager; Brian Moores, lead designer Completion: Autumn 2002 Challenge: Operating rooms, especially minimally invasive ones in which physicians use cameras to guide their surgeries, are full of technology—tiny endoscopic cameras, room cameras, computers, monitors, and imaging equipment. How do physicians and nurses manage all that technology simply and reliably? Solution: Shen Milsom & Wilke helped design the systems that manage the multimedia equipment for two new minimally invasive operating rooms at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Minimally invasive operating rooms, in which physicians use cameras and monitors to guide their surgeries, are full of high-tech equipment. Physicians and nurses must be able to manage it easily and reliably. MSKCC is a teaching hospital so events in the operating room are recorded. Cameras record digital images to a variety of formats. Windows in the mezzanine, where students and personnel view operations, have LCD shutter glass, which becomes opaque for privacy by pressing a button. Operating room personnel use videoconferencing to communicate with other departments or with physicians inside or outside MSKCC. Surgeons and operating room staff can also access, view, and select patient archival and communication system (PACS) radiology images on any of the monitors in the operating room. They can also call up patient records. Shen Milsom & Wilke is connecting the operating rooms to the pathology department so surgeons can confer with pathologists in real-time. Taking the Gamble Out The Borgata, Atlantic City, NJ
Telecommunications, multimedia, acoustics, data center: Shen Milsom & Wilke; Tom Shen, principal designer Completion: Summer 2003 Square footage: 4 million Challenge: The 2,010-guestroom Borgata includes 120,000 square feet of gaming space, several specialty restaurants and distinct boutiques, a European-style spa, and a range of entertainment venues. How is the technology for all these services, including critical back-of-house operations, linked and managed? Solution: Shen Milsom & Wilke designed a data network to support mission-critical systems, including gaming operations, hotel registration, digital signage, and administrative back-of-house applications. Many other networked applications specific to the gaming industry, such as player tracking, are transported over the data network. Multimedia work included intelligent zoned background music and paging systems that adjust automatically to ambient noise levels; video displays in all public areas including the casino floor, retail areas, lobbies, and restaurants; as well as the design and specification of all hotel guestroom entertainment systems, including high-end suites with audiophile-quality home theater systems. Shen Milsom & Wilke also designed a network operations center (NOC) to allow 24/7 monitoring of all electronic operations, including the background music and paging system, the hotel guestroom entertainment systems, and the digital signage systems. India: One of the Largest Network Operations Centers in the World Reliance Infocomm National Network Operations Center, Navi Mumbai, India
Multimedia, telecommunications: Shen Milsom & Wilke, New York City; Steven Emspak, project manager; Mark Alspach, lead designer Completion: Winter 2003 Square footage: 20,000 (NOC only) Challenge: Reliance Infocomm needed a fail-safe system to manage the 60,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cable that make up its data and communications network in India. Solution: Multimedia technology for Reliance Infocomm’s Network Operations Center (NOC), as well as the company’s situation room, video conferencing room, national security control room, training rooms, and a back-up NOC in the city of Hyderabad were designed by Shen, Milsom & Wilke. The NOC’s walls are comprised of 160 rear-projection cubes that provide a total screen surface of almost 2,520 square feet. The two opposing displays are each 90 feet wide by 14 feet high. The monitors display different views and maps of the network and its status. There is also a video display component so that the operators can watch television stations—necessary to keep up with news and weather events. The floor of the NOC contains consoles for 150 operators, who staff the room 24/7. Shen Milsom & Wilke also coordinated other design factors, such as electrical configurations, ergonomics, and acoustics. Building Security Consulting Services Added Security Technology Converges With Telecommunications, Multimedia Disciplines
“Security is a logical extension of Shen Milsom & Wilke’s services,” says Fred Shen, president of Shen Milsom & Wilke. “It incorporates many of the technologies in which we are expert. It also bolsters the trend toward systems integration.” Shen Milsom & Wilke’s security services include needs assessments, audits of existing systems, master planning, asset and facility protection design, construction administration, and user training and commissioning. Robert Martino, a veteran in the building security field, leads Shen Milsom & Wilke’s security consulting team. He has experience on many different types of projects, including international airports, office high-rises, government buildings, casinos, and healthcare facilities. Hot Again Shen Milsom & Wilke chosen for 100 Hot Firms list For the third year in a row, Shen Milsom & Wilke was named to Zweig White’s 100 Hot Firms list of architecture, engineering, planning, and environmental consulting companies. The company placed 81st with a growth rate of 65 percent within the past three years. The tremendous growth is attributable, in part, to the company’s unique blend of disciplines, including multimedia, acoustics, and telecommunications design and consulting. Expanding its presence and market penetration in key business sectors such as education and healthcare also fueled Shen Milsom & Wilke’s growth. The 100 Hot Firms listed in the Zweig Letter, produced by management consulting firm Zweig White, were selected based on the sustained growth (over a three-year period) of U.S. firms in business before or as of January 1, 1999, and with gross revenues of $1 million or more. They represent a range of firm sizes and areas of expertise. The winning firms had revenues from $5 million to $2.5 billion. Rankings were based on percentage of growth and dollar growth, giving small and large firms an equal opportunity to be recognized. Technology Update: Data Centers How to Design and Plan Your Physical Data Center By Robert McFarlane This summer, McFarlane, a principal at Shen, Milsom & Wilke, was invited to speak at a Data Center Futures Conference in Chicago. His talk is excerpted here. Every business considers its data center important. There are many businesses for which an outage of several hours would be unthinkable; even a brief outage could cause irreparable damage. For many companies, the blackout of August 14 in the Northeastern United States was catastrophic. When upgrading or building a new data center, the costs grow exponentially as reliability goals rise to the ultimate mission critical or 99.999 percent rating. Yet weighing risk against investment is a tricky proposition. Business planners must consider how much lost data, broken equipment, or, perhaps worst of all, a damaged reputation, will cost their business if their data center malfunctions. The process of designing a new data center involves a series of steps taken in concert with the architect, engineer, and client. There is no single solution and the same approach does not satisfy the needs of every organization. Design is based on a thorough understanding of client requirements. What is the client’s level of technological sophistication? What is the normal lifecycle of technology for that client? What is the duration of the building lease? Is the business growing steadily or cyclically? How will this affect the computer services? And, of course, how critical is it that services continue, despite disastrous situations? Once these questions are answered, the designer can begin to balance the many factors that affect the space. These include the physical location, backup power sources and power distribution, air conditioning, fire protection and security, and physical hardening of the space. Consistency is key here. Designing for 99.999 percent reliability in one aspect (power, for example), but leaving the operation vulnerable to failure in another area (such as air conditioning), compromises the design. Evolving technology has a significant affect on design. Hardware, for example, is getting smaller but there is more of it and it is more densely packed. Higher density servers and storage devices require more concentrated power and produce higher heat loads. Meanwhile, manufacturer’s claims must be closely investigated. Creating a clean, flexible way to properly distribute power, air, and cable to the equipment racks and machines may present the biggest design challenge. The cable itself is smaller and more uniform, but there’s more of it. As a result, cable management—under-floor, overhead, and within the equipment cabinets—must be part of an integrated solution. Finally, over-design is expensive, impractical, and alarmingly common. Many data center designers do this to compensate for inexperience or lack of knowledge. It’s a good idea to perform a “sanity check” on all numbers. Data center projects underway or recently completed by Shen Milsom & Wilke: Bridgestone/Firestone Information Services, Akron, Ohio Data center audit: Shen Milsom & Wilke Completion: August 2003 Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha Data center design, audiovisual/multimedia and telecommunications: Shen Milsom & Wilke Completion: Ongoing The Borgata, Atlantic City Data center design, audiovisual/multimedia and telecommunications: Shen Milsom & Wilke Completion: July 2003 Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago Data center design: Shen Milsom & Wilke Completion: Ongoing Shen Milsom & Wilke, an international technology consulting practice founded in 1986, offers comprehensive services in the areas of telecommunications, audiovisual/multimedia, and acoustics. The firm has offices in New York, Princeton, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Houston, Denver, San Francisco, Las Vegas, London, Dubai, and Hong Kong, and a staff of more than 140 professionals. Shen Milsom & Wilke was named one of the 100 fastest growing A/E/P firms in the nation by Zweig White & Associates for the years 2001 and 2002. To unsubscribe please send an e-mail to unsubscribe@smwinc.com. You need to send from the e-mail account in which you receive the newsletter. No subject or content is needed. If you cannot send from that account, or wish to change your subscription e-mail address, mail us at smw@smwinc.com. |
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