The list of events that involve lots of simultaneous high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasts is exclusive: the Olympics, the Super Bowl, maybe a presidential convention or political rally. And, of course, the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) Trans­catheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference.

In fact, TCT 2008, held from Oct. 12-17 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., offered "the largest HDTV production in the world outside the [2008 Summer] Olympics," according to Robert Langford, president of Med-Scene, the video producer for the event. "And they had three weeks, and we only had three days."

Over the course of those three days during the conference - which was attended by more than 10,000 interventional cardiologists, nurses, technicians, and other health-care professionals - CRF presented live HD broadcasts of heart operations from 26 hospitals around the world. In all, attendees saw about a hundred surgical procedures as they were happening, in astonishingly vivid detail. At past TCTs, CRF also presented live operations, but in standard-definition video.

"The clarity issue is primarily the reason we went for [HDTV], and it really paid off," said Johnnie White, CMP, CRF's director of meetings and conventions. "Interventional cardiology is so reliant on medical imaging, [and with HDTV,] all the medical imaging that comes through is crystal clear."

CRF set up four theaters for the live-case broadcasts: the Main Arena, which had a 20' X 65' video screen, and Structural Heart Theater, Coronary Theater, and Endovascular Theater, each of which had a 15' X 55' screen. Because the giant screens were "montage" screens, they could be divided to show several different images: the operation in the center, interesting facts on the left, and close-ups of the surgeons on the right, along with names, titles, and, in Coronary Theater, text messages from the audience. The overall effect was highly interactive.

"Let's say the physician is using a certain stint," White said. "What we'll put up on the side screen is the specifications for the stint. It gives the audience the opportunity to get more information about what's going on with that case."

Coordinating the whole high-def show was no small feat, according to Langford, who called TCT "probably one of the most complex audiovisual shows in the country." Med-Scene had to traffic-cop the signals it was receiving from all over the globe, sort out the different technical standards from one country to the next, and send the signals back out. "On Wednesday alone," Langford said, "we had 12 sites live simultaneously, all coming in to the master control at the Washington Convention Center, then all distributed to four separate venues."

Attendee response "was very positive," White said. "The clarity there, the detail there, helped in [attendees] being able to see the procedures better. A stint is a very small device. Putting HD on it, you could see the details very close up."

Innovative Meetings Take Away

According to CRF's Johnnie White and Med-Scene's Robert Langford, the HDTV broadcasts at TCT 2008:

• used nearly 150 hours of satellite time
• originated from as far away as Seoul and Beijing
• benefited from occurring on three weekdays, when they weren't competing for satellite time with weekend sporting events
• cost 20 percent to 30 percent more for video production and 25 percent more for video transmission than TCT 2007's standard-definition broadcasts.

Christopher Durso is executive editor of Convene.
The Innovative Meetings column is sponsored by the Irving, Texas, Convention and Visitors Bureau, www.irvingtexas.com.