Case Studies

BETHESDA GENERAL HOSPITAL BERGEDORF

The Challenge:

Hamburg, one of Germany's largest cities, is well known for its busy port at the mouth of the Elbe River, and frequently referred to as Germany's "door to the world." With its population growth and position as an international port, it has spawned an evolving metropolitan infrastructure that includes 20 hospitals. Among the busiest and best known is the Bethesda General Hospital Bergedorf. Each year, this hospital cares for more than 11,500 inpatients, 150 patients requiring mixed services, and 8,000 outpatient cases. With a helicopter pad and 24-hour emergency room, the facility's staff is constantly in motion, caring for those who need it most. Providing quality care requires the latest technology and equipment, including state-of-the-art communications networks. When the hospital needed an effective solution to link two facilities — a computer center and the hospital — separated by 1,500 meters, officials had a few key requirements: affordability, reliability, quick installation, and fiber-like bandwidth. The hospital turned to optical wireless provider LightPointe, and its partner ELTD GmbH, a Warnemünde-based communications company.

The Solution:

LightPointe's multi-beam FlightSpectrum™ 155/2000 provides full-duplex bandwidth of 155 megabits through the air at a range up to 2,000 meters between two locations. And unlike other free-space optics (FSO)-based companies, LightPointe's system met all of the hospital's requirements — even the requirement to operate under adverse weather conditions. Close to the North Sea, Hamburg is often shrouded in fog. In extreme cases, fog can interfere with data transmission of wireless optical systems, but in the more than one year since installing the LightPointe optical wireless system, fog has never affected it or degraded the signal, thanks to superior network planning by ELTD and the equipment's German engineering. (LightPointe's products are manufactured at its Dresden, Germany facility.)

LightPointe's optical wireless products — based on the latest in FSO technology — are now at work in more than 60 countries, in 2,000-plus installations.

Sound Byte:

"I was looking for an affordable, easy-to-use solution with bandwidth of at least 100 megabits . We were impressed at how easily and quickly the LightPointe optical wireless system was installed — it has been running perfectly now for one year."
— Malte Almeling, IT Director for Bethesda General Hospital Bergedorf.

"We have found a competent partner in LightPointe, which takes client demands into consideration and implements them to the complete satisfaction of the client. We had a connection in one day,"
— Dieter Süllwold, Managing Director of ELTD, who is happy with the simplicity and ease of the equipment installation.