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Fremont Memorial Hospital deploys digital signage solution from Black Box

October 6, 2009

Black Box Corp. announced today that Fremont Memorial Hospital in Fremont, Ohio, has deployed Black Box's iCOMPEL digital signage system as a communications platform for welcoming visitors and for promoting healthcare services in its facility.

An integrated hardware/software appliance, the iCOMPEL simplifies the tasks of assembling and distributing video, audio, and Web content to one or hundreds of screens. iCOMPEL is designed to be a digital signage solution for hospitals with limited creative and technical staff. It comes with professionally designed layouts and drag-and-drop tools for customizing layouts and scheduling the playing of content.

"I didn't have a lot of digital signage experience and am happy with how far this system has come," Preston explained. "The functionality has been fantastic, and the basic operation to update content is very easy."

The iCOMPEL system was installed by Convergentech and Muzak of Toledo (Ohio), a provider of workplace/business telephone, video, and data systems in northwestern Ohio. The company saw a demonstration of the iCOMPEL at the InfoComm 2009 exhibition in Orlando and, in turn, recommended it to Fremont Memorial Hospital.

"The iCOMPEL is a great product that we are happy to add to our product mix," said John D. Raymond, vice president of Convergentech and Muzak of Toledo. "Its power and flexibility make it a great fit for many applications."

George Borden, Black Box national sales manager for digital signage, said the iCOMPEL is particularly well-suited for a number of healthcare applications, whether in a standalone doctor's office, clinic, or community hospital, or in a network of many facilities within a region-wide health system.

"With the consolidation of hospitals nationwide, administrators face a greater challenge: Ensuring that information is consistent and up to date from one facility to the next," Borden said. "Our iCOMPEL is the answer. It's Web manageable, so public relations staff and other administrators have an easy, cost-effective way to upload and distribute media for viewing by patients, visitors, and staff system-wide."

The appliance has a built-in Web server and can be installed on a network, assigned an IP address, and managed via a password-protected browser interface from a remote workstation.

"And because the system enables an administrator to update text on remote screens and publish instant messages from a central location, it is ideal for visual paging of important medical staff in the hospital setting," Borden said.