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Vic govt deploys video accessibility service

Solution delivered as managed service to maintain quality

Geelong Hospital in Victoria has launched the state’s first video relay interpreting (VRI) service aimed at providing hearing impaired people better access to interpreter services, particularly with health care.

After a six-month trial last year, the VRI service is now being deployed at ten sites across the state.

The project is a part of a $2 million government grant to improve interpreting services through more modern information and communication technologies.

Victoria’s community services minister, Lisa Neville, said the new service will link patients and doctors (and other health professionals) with an interpreter through high quality video conferencing equipment, including video cameras and large displays.

“The new service will minimise the barriers of distance, time and cost involved with providing Auslan interpreters, especially in regional and rural areas across Victoria,” Neville said.

“Geelong Hospital will now be able to quickly and easily access interpreting services even when an interpreter is not able to be physically present at the hospital.”

Sites to receive the technology include Bendigo Health, Latrobe Community Health Service (Gippsland), Ballarat Business Centre, VicDeaf office (East Melbourne), and the On-Call interpreting service in central Melbourne.

The Victorian Department of Human Services worked with local IP communications company Vantage Systems to design and implement the VRI solution.

The VRI system consists of a high definition videoconferencing system, a 50-inch plasma display, trolley, microphone and speakers.

Vantage Systems CEO Mark Buckley said by providing a managed service around the solution the company can ensure that community members and interpreters have access to video technology that is reliable and “with good sound and picture quality”.

With the introduction of VRI services in four rural centres, the uptake in Auslan interpreting increased by more than 200 per cent across all sites, according to Vantage.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

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Comments

1

Claire Larsen

Fri 19/03/2010 - 16:58

Video Deployment

Good to see Geelong Hospital using video for interpreter services and for the benefit of the wider community.

Another terrific example is the use of TANDBERG technology by InterpreterLine, an Australian interpreting service company which successfully provides telephone-based interpretation to a cross section of industries, including government, healthcare, education, justice, disability services and not-for-profit organisations. Over the past five years, the company has grown substantially and now employs over 2,000 interpreters and translators who provide services in more than 100 languages and dialects as well as Auslan support for the deaf community.

InterpreterLine wanted to introduce a video conferencing service to expand its business nationwide, make better use of their interpreter’s time and reduce costs for clients on limited budgets by providing better and more efficient services. The challenge was to find an all-in-one system that offered quality of face-to-face communications and could form a key pillar for supporting their planned growth with a very limited pool of certified interpreters in Australia. The company introduced 12 TANDBERG all-in-one video conferencing desk based systems, as well as the TANDBERG Management Suite to manage its entire video conferencing network. More recently, it has deployed TANDBERG PC high definition video conferencing for mobile workers and for remote clients

Through more efficient use of interpreters’ skills due to decreased travel time, the company has boosted its daily job capacity in 2009 by 14%. Clients also enjoy reduced costs of up to 300% through the elimination of travel expenses from their bill. Video conferencing also helps the deaf community to communicate using Auslan. With the country facing a chronic shortage of Auslan interpreters, particularly in regional and rural areas, the only way until now to provide such a service was face-to-face, making this an extremely expensive proposition. Auslan interpreters therefore require the highest quality video conferencing services available for sign language, that limit any pixilation, jitter or other types of visual degradation. As a result, video interpretation expands InterpreterLine’s capacity to offer this much needed service to the deaf community.

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