Neurosurgeon Dr. Ali Krisht is using the Haivision Makito H.264 HD encoder along with a TrueVision TrueWare 7.0 3D visualisation system and TrueZoom 3D surgical camera to stream real-time microsurgery images to remote conferencing centres for teaching staff and clinicians around the world. The system debuted at the International Durability and Efficiency in Microneurosurgery Conference.

“St. Vincent is home to a world-renown neuroscience centre where Dr. Krisht is recognised internationally for his pioneering work and expertise across a variety of neurological subspecialties,” Haivision senior vice president Peter Maag says.

“His knowledge and experience attracts some of the field’s most talented clinicians to Arkansas and the hospital’s new 3D Video over IP delivery model, based on our Makito H.264 HD encoder, provides flexible, live delivery of stereoscopic images to facilitate immersive, state-of-the-art education and training in the latest neurosurgical care.”

TrueVision technology enables surgeons to view and record microsurgery in 3D via a heads-up 1080p display rather than through a microscope. The Haivision Makito H.264 HD low-latency encoder extends the utility of this technology by enabling surgeons, residents and other staff members outside the operating room to view live surgery as if they were performing it themselves through a microscope, thus enhancing the educational experience.

3D images are captured during surgery using a single Makito system to encode the TrueVision DVI output – a left/right 2D mirrored image at 1080p60 is switched to 1080p30 3D to preserve stereo depth – and then images are sent to a conference room in another hospital building across campus.

A high-performance Alienware laptop is equipped with Haivision’s HaiPLAY soft player to decode the real-time stream with an output at 1920x1080p resolution. The streamed video is displayed on two 46-inch JVC 3D HD LCD displays, specially modified by TrueVision to enable compositing of the 2D left/right mirror images for 3D viewing with 3D glasses.

“The 3D medium offers significant benefits over 2D imagery as a teaching tool, as well as in remote diagnosis and mentoring,” TrueVision vice president of product development A. Burton Tripathi says.

“The use of 3D in microsurgery applications demands a high level of rigor in portraying the fine gradations that can indicate problems such as a tumor, cataract, or diseased cornea. The Haivision Makito encoder meets these stringent visualisation requirements, delivering excellent video quality that enables advanced training at St. Vincent and offers great promise for deployments in more demanding remote healthcare applications.”

The Makito allows St. Vincent to distribute 3D HD video throughout the organisation cost-effectively and without reservation. The encoder’s H.264 compression standard supports all HD resolutions and frame rates up to 1080p60 and its HiLo-Streaming feature enables creation of both a full-resolution, full-bandwidth stream and a reduced-resolution, low-bandwidth stream simultaneously.

With advanced features such as traffic shaping, forward error correction and AES encryption, the Makito ensures that video content is consistent in quality and secure even in multicast environments.