With Paso, Made in Italy is guaranteed: our company has been chosen to manage announcements, alarm messages and calls to prayer at the Al Mouwasat Group’s new hospital site in Medina, Saudi Arabia. “Al Madinah,” translated in Italian as “Medina,” is one of those toponyms that evoke entire scenes, somewhere between the historical and the fairy-tale: an extraordinary, enlightened and historic Arab city rising in a vast oasis, a pilgrimage destination for millions of Muslims, a holy city of Islam, Medina is also home to a very modern hospital headquarters the Al Mouwasat Group, inaugurated one year ago.
The Al Mouwasat Group is very well-known within the health sector of been a group controlling and managing several hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

The Group
Mouwasat Medical Services is a group established in 1975 with a mission completely focused on the patient, whose best interest is placed at the top of its priorities. In fact, the group’s goal is to provide the necessary care to the patient, who is followed from the beginning until full recovery, with the most advanced equipment and attention to detail. The visual and design aspects are not neglected and are very important in the reception of patients and visitors, in the comfort of rooms and medical ambients but also other equipment: special attention has been paid to the design of all the areas of the hospital building including, for example, the kitchens.
The Group’s basic belief is that everyone has the right to quality health care, based on a combination of state-of-the-art technology and sound, learned medical practices, including close collaboration between local practitioners and international medical organizations.
Among the values the Group declares is a commitment to patient and environmental safety. And this is where Paso comes in and, with it, an important “slice” of Made in Italy in this fascinating corner of Arabia, kissed by History and Spirituality, as well as medical science.

Paso in the lane: quality audio for all applications
The hospital inaugurated by the Al Mouwasat Group in Medina is located right in the center of the city, and it is a facility of excellence. It is not surprising, then, that Saudi Projects & Supplies Company, the local system integrator in charge of supplying the technological equipment for communication inside the hospital, a long-standing partner of Paso, thought precisely of the famous Italian brand to offer the facility that extra touch of class and efficiency, guaranteed by products designed and built in Italy, and world-famous for their functionality and reliability.
Paso’s signature solution covers the entire management of announcements, both alarm messages and calls to prayer, which are very important in the Muslim world, in all the different areas of the hospital.

But how is this complex and layered multi-zone system structured?
First of all, it is based on the architecture of the P8136 & P8236 Multizone Voice/music binomial, master and slave units, respectively, which allow management of up to a maximum of six zones with the ability to turn music on/off for each zone via simple buttons. The simplicity of connection (CAT5) between the various units and control bases, even far apart from each other, makes this multi-zone system suitable and not too costly for both large and small installations, moreover allowing the use of both centralized and local controls.
Master and slave can be used to switch both line signals (one amplifier per zone) and power signals, and depending on the size and configuration of the sound system, the units can be used individually or linked together. So, you can connect two amplifiers (one for music and one for speech, in a two-channel system) or a single voice/music amplifier. The maximum system configuration includes six master control units connected with 30 slaves (a maximum of five per master), thus allowing the user to manage as many as 216 voice/music zones!
That’s not all, because up to 16 PMB106-G and/or PMB112-G microphone consoles can be connected to each unit. In fact, the P8136 master unit offers, unlike its twin P8236, four inputs for auxiliary sound sources with selector and level adjustment, as well as two line inputs with automatic priority activation (VOX) and four RJ45 inputs for call stations, capable of controlling all zones in the system.
Finally, the P8136 master unit is also prepared for the insertion of the optional ACMG8136 and ACIO8136 boards, both of which are used in the case of Al Mouwasat Hospital, whose system involves the use of one P8136 master unit and four P8236 slave units.

Expansion boards and microphone bases
The expansion cards mentioned above, ACMG8136 and ACIO8136, are essentially for automatic and/or manual broadcasting of prerecorded messages. Specifically, ACMG8136 allows the messages present in SD card memory to be played back by triggering events programmed through the P8136 Manager software, enabling hourly, daily and weekly management of messages, as well as single or periodic cycles. The ACIO8136 expansion board, on the other hand, is designed to interface the P8136 unit with external peripheral units, offering features such as CAT5 master/slave connection, six optoisolated input contacts, six relay output contacts, and a balanced audio line input. Depending on the mode required and the connection line on which it is used, this card can operate either as a master unit, connected to the P8136 unit or as a Local Unit, connected to the appropriate socket on a P8236 unit. In Master mode, the ACIO8136 board operates according to the programming carried out using the P8136 Manager system software, and allows factors such as priority, inactivity status, signal output or playback of a pre-recorded message in the configured zones, and triggering of output events to be established for each input contact.
The microphone stations chosen for the system (PMB112-G) feature an electret microphone and a flexible stem at the base and can operate with central and local power supply (18÷36 VDC). Configuration operations are programmable from the keypad: address setting (up to 31), priority level (up to 7), microphone sensitivity adjustment, programming of zone selection keys and general call key (ALL), and activation of word filter for better intelligibility. To complete the equipment, PMB112-G microphone station expansion keypads were also used, offering twelve programmable zone selection buttons, indicator LEDs, general selection key as well as the ability to cascade up to two units.

Audio amplification and broadcasting
Finally and to wrap up the project, the necessary final audio power adjustments as well as the audio signals diffusion within the various areas of the hospital building have been entrusted to the PMD500 modular amplifiers and the C57/6-EN and C49/6-T loudspeakers.
PMD500 amplifiers are modular class “D” amplifiers based on high-tech components and characterized by extreme compactness and low power consumption. Complete with a diagnostic board for testing correct operation and verifying the integrity of the loudspeaker line, they are equipped with dual output circuits with separate control (A and B), for the realization of redundant line systems: if a short-circuit is detected in one of the two outputs, the line is automatically disconnected for regular operation of the other. Importantly, the independent power supply of each amplifier makes the system reliable and conforms to safety standards.
Finally, as far as diffusers are concerned, the choice fell first of all on the C57/6-EN models, diffusers certified EN 54-24, EN 60065 and EN 60849 with IP32 protection rating, specially developed for emergency and evacuation systems. Featuring solid metal ceiling plates, C57 models are equipped with ceramic terminals and a thermal fuse, which ensure that the connection line is safeguarded. The steel flame-proof cap makes these diffusers comply with fire safety standards.
While the speaker model C49/6-EN models, 6W/12W are suitable for both wall and ceiling mounting. Made of UL94-V0 self-extinguishing ABS in white, these diffusers are also specially developed for use in emergency and evacuation systems: in fact, they are equipped, like the C57s, with a ceramic terminal block and a thermal fuse, and are very suitable for indoor environments in which clear, intelligible and safe sound reproduction is required.

The first digital hospital in Medina
The Mouwasat Hospital in Medina is ultimately the first facility in this renowned Holy City of the Muslim world to be equipped with all the latest equipment, a true digital hospital where all workflows are managed by technology.
With its equipment fleet and multiple expertise from different countries around the world, Al Mouwasat Hospital in Medina can provide the best medical services to patients. The choice of Paso for both the public address and emergency sound system was due to the company’s proven experience in implementing communication systems in the public arena and the wide range of products the company’s catalogue could field to meet the project requirements.
The hospital’s director, Khalid Hussain, described the system as “the most stable and reliable system it was possible to design. Requiring minimal maintenance efforts, and being usable even by staff without technical experience ; this system is indeed very funcional and flexible “