What Infrastructure Do Hospitals Need for IPTV?

As technology and patient expectations shift, it’s essential for hospitals and health systems to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to infrastructure for hospital TV systems. But the truth is, many medical facilities are falling behind with these critical investments.

The days of grainy pictures coming through a coaxial cable are long gone in homes across the US, and they should be in hospitals as well. But the scope of labor involved in infrastructure work—combined with tighter budgets from the effects of Covid-19—means many facilities have held off on making the upgrades necessary to implement IPTV for their patients.

IPTV for Hospitals: The First Steps

With internet protocol television, or IPTV, the signal is transmitted exclusively through ethernet cabling. This means any coaxial cabling your facility is depending on is growing more obsolete by the day.

So the first step to implementing IPTV for your facility is to get ethernet functionality in every room, all connected back to a digital headend.

At the same time, you’ll also want to make sure that all the TVs in your facility are equipped to handle an ethernet signal (both the hospital-grade TVs in patient rooms as well as the commercial-grade TVs in waiting areas, etc.).

Why It Matters

As analog signals are phased out, upgrading infrastructure will become a necessity for facilities that don’t have any digital TV capabilities. And many other facilities are receiving a digital signal, but down-converting it to analog because of infrastructure limitations.

On top of that, patient expectations continue to rise. By giving patients high-definition TV in their room—with live and on-demand options—you can provide the comforts of home in the midst of a challenging medical event. And that experience can only have a positive impact on patient satisfaction and, ultimately, reimbursement levels.

Why Choose RTG?

There are a wide range of vendors out there who offer certain elements of hospital TV systems. Some sell TVs and hardware, some offer TV and movie programming, and some can handle the infrastructure installation and maintenance. But very few have expertise in all these areas.

At RTG, we offer turnkey solutions for IPTV in hospitals: cabling, digital headends, TVs, live and on-demand TV/movies, interactive patient engagement, and digital signage—everything you need from start to finish, all from a single source, all tailored to meet your exact needs.

Questions? Contact us today to learn more.