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BY
STEPHANIE HAUGAN
Wired for Medical Miracles
FOR ITS NEW WORLD HEADQUARTERS, MEDTRONIC
INC. OUTFITTED ITSELF WITH THE VERY LATEST
TECHNOLOGICAL GEAR
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 "To
Strive without Reserve" is Medtronic's
commitment, and its mission is to provide
lifelong solutions for those with chronic
disease. Visitors to Medtronic's new world
headquarters campus pass through the four-story
lobby and are welcomed by its mission statement
etched in ten languages in the glass entryway
to its new auditorium.
Medtronic is the world's leading medical
technology company, providing lifelong solutions
for people with chronic disease. With years
of experience in the treatment of heart
disease, Medtronic now provides a wide range
of products and therapies that help more
than 2.5 million people worldwide. Every
12 seconds, somewhere in the world, the
life of someone is improved by a Medtronic
product or therapy. Medtronic has been recognized
for its humanitarian mission, as well as
for its employees and their commitment to
business excellence, with kudos from Fortune,
Shareholder Value, ComputerWorld, Darwin
Magazine, Business Ethics, and others during
the last several years.
Fueled by a recent string of mergers and
acquisitions, as well as by organic growth
in its existing businesses, Medtronic soon
found that a physical expansion was needed
to further the work of the company. The
new Medtronic world headquarters campus
was developed, designed, and executed with
the same care and attention to detail Medtronic
applies to all of its products and services.
In June 2001, Medtronic completed construction
of this 500,000-square-foot, leading-edge
facility, located in Fridley, MN, north
of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, which
serves as a cornerstone for its corporate
operations.
Jim Driessen, Construction and Facilities
Planning Manager at Medtronic says, "We
wanted to ensure that our new facility would
further enhance our ability to provide 21st
century communications capabilities. Ongoing
training and communications are key to the
understanding and success of our products
and services. We wanted all the spaces to
be extremely functional, as well as reflective
of the high-tech industry in which we operate."
To that end, Medtronic assembled an extraordinary
team of internal staff members and external
business partners. Hammel, Green and Abrahamson,
Inc. was the project architect; SPL Integrated
Solutions provided the integrated multimedia
consulting, design and installation; and
McGough Construction was the general contractor.
The campus includes separate but connected
buildings for research, education, corporate
headquarters staff, commons activities and
the headquarters for its neurological business.
All spaces are designed to provide Medtronic
employees and visitors with an open, inviting,
work environment. The four-story lobby welcomes
visitors with an airy, open space accented
by live trees and informational kiosks.
The seven touch-screen kiosks, using Sony's
PFM-42B1 42-inch (viewable area, measured
diagonally) plasma monitors, provide viewers
with self-guided tours through Medtronic's
array of products and patents, plus a company
overview. These kiosks are the first stop
for new employees as well as for the more
than 5,000 physicians who come through Medtronic
each year for training and development.
The other meeting and training spaces in
the complex were designed for both comfort
and efficiency. The multimedia technologies
encourage connectivity with both internal
and external resources. Prepared media presentation,
computer presentation, and Internet/videoconferencing
capabilities form the basic technologies
platform for all group communication spaces.
WIRED FOR FORM AND FUNCTION
 The
24 training rooms are designed to incorporate
Flexible presentation mode capabilities,
Superior visual presentation clarity and
brightness, Operational consistencies, and
Campus and corporate-wide connectivity.
The training rooms are equipped with S-VHS
decks, DVD players, and audio systems. Additional
inputs for computer presentation and auxiliary
video enable presentation from other sources.
Since visual clarity and brightness are
even more critical in a medical setting,
Medtronic selected Sony VPL-PX31 LCD projectors
for these training rooms. Joe Kaufenberg,
a Sony Electronics Display Account Manager,
Display Systems Division, says, "Our
demonstration trials using some of Medtronic's
most visually demanding medical materials
made the VPL-PX31 the clear choice for this
very critical project."
Each room's system is controlled by an
AMX touch panel programmed to accommodate
Medtronic's own presentation terminologies.
This assures corporate-wide consistencies
that enable trainers and presenters to be
immediately familiar with operating functions
from room to room and even building to building.
The entire campus, including the training
rooms, is wired to enable campus-wide connectivity.
This enables video/audio feeds to and from
other media-enabled rooms. For example,
rooms equipped with videoconferencing capabilities
can broadcast to one or more training rooms
to facilitate overflow viewing. The two
videoconferencing training rooms use Sony
DXC-390 video cameras. "We can accommodate
a physician's hectic schedules with this
remote training option," says Driessen.
"And, with videoconferencing capability,
we can train people here plus provide expertise
on medical technology and practice from
physicians all over the world."
GLOBAL CONFERENCES
Medtronic's board members must make critical
decisions impacting the company while assuring
adherence to the company's core values,
its collaboration with physicians and business
partners around the globe, and defining
the strategic roadmap for the company as
it moves forward. Medtronic's international
conference room is designed to facilitate
these critical information-gathering and
decision-making activities.
The conference room's design incorporates
three Sony VPL-FE110 video projectors displaying
on one large center Stewart screen (70 inches
high; 16 x 9 aspect ratio) plus two smaller
screens on either side. This system enables
bright, crisp display of critical spreadsheet
data and other informational images. One,
two, or three screens can be used.
Videoconferencing is a crucial function
in the international conference room since
not all board members reside in Minnesota.
The three-screen configuration enables participants
to interact with both the distant participants
and any visual materials with ease. The
six Sony DXC-390 video cameras provide full,
adaptable, video coverage of all participants
around the board table, plus any participants
seated elsewhere in the room. A full range
of other presentation and communication
technologies ensures that any presenter
with information to be displayed in almost
any format can be accommodated. Selectable
sources include computers, document camera,
DVD and VHS, slide and slide-to-video, audio
cassette and CD, video camera, campus-wide
function, and DSS satellite.
A HIGH-TECH EXPERIENCE
Medtronic required a 275-seat auditorium
that would be much more than just a space
to house large groups of people. The resulting
architectural configuration and presentation
technologies enable the space to accommodate
a smaller group breakfast meeting in the
morning and, by afternoon, be converted
for an afternoon employee meeting, accented
by a theater-style presentation. This flexibility
is achieved, in part, by the flat floor
design, rather than an elevated seating
configuration. Technicians are able to quickly
rearrange the seating for a variety of meeting
configurations. The presentation technologies
are also designed to support small, medium,
and large group functions.
Integrated Multimedia decisions were made
based on Medtronic's requirements for quality,
clarity, and precision. The Sony VPL-FE110
LCD projectors, in a double-stack configuration,
provide a high level of brightness, true
colorimetry, and redundancy. Dave Olson,
Account Executive, SPL Integrated Solutions,
says, "We chose the VPL-FE110 because
it greatly increases the image brightness,
and large spaces such as this require maximum
brightness. The double-stack system provides
immediate system backup during critical
meeting time." Selectable presentation
sources include DVD player, multi-standard
deck, slide-to-video projector, VHS cassette
deck, and dual audio cassette deck. The
surround-sound audio system provides a theater-style
sound experience for presentations and an
intimate sound for audio and videoconference
functions.
Flexible technology designs are best understood
from the auditorium's control room. Here,
technicians not only operate all auditorium
presentation and conferencing systems, but
are also able to configure the switcher,
routers, and patching equipment to produce
and project live video from the auditorium
to a full range of receiving locations including
the international conference room and any
or all of the 24 training rooms.
"Everything we set out to accomplish
at our new headquarters facility was geared
to providing the best learning and communication
experience possible for employees as well
as people who visit our company," says
Driessen. "We really feel that we have
accomplished this goal. Whether you're in
our training rooms, the international conference
room or the auditorium, it's a very integrated,
informative, high-tech experience."
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