Hospital Light Show suggestions strange request

ksmith247

ksmith247

New member
I thought my first show that I would put on would be my house, but my work has given me a strange opportunity. They are having a hospital bed contest and one of our units heard that I was starting Christmas light sequencing, so they called me today for some help. I thought it was strange myself to decorate a hospital bed, but I look at it as an opportunity to set up my first show, and have it small scale.

The question, or rather idea suggestions:

Anyone have any suggestions for decorating a hospital bed. I should be able to add traction equipment to the bed, so it would have a metal frame above the bed like a you would see on a canopy bed. I thought about just using 16 channels for this project, since it is just a bed after-all and not much room. It is an IU Hospital I work at, so I thought about using all red and white LED lights that I have. I have C7, C9, and some white incans I can use.

This is a competition they are putting on and I can not imagine anyone else having synced blinky-flashy lights on their bed.





total care bed.gif
 
I assume nobody is going to lay in this bed when it's all done? Just wondering if you want to stay away from AC lighting and stick with low-voltage DC instead...?
 
IV's only come in bags with the solutions in them anymore, but that is a good idea if I can find something else.

The unit I am going to work with is our Post Partum unit, which is where women go after giving birth. The manager was talking about doing octomom (not the nadia woman) but I don't think that is a good idea, because I know when I hear octomom, I do think of the woman on welfare with 8 kids that has to do porn in order to support them. I think I am going to mention that to then when I see them tomorrow. I am sure they will do something with birth, since it is that department.

Good call on the AC power. I will let them know not to have anyone on the bed when the lights are going for safety reasons. Unfortunately I am going to be out of town when they do this also, so I have to make it as simple as possible. I figure I can set it all up and they can just start the sequence. Since I have LOR sequencing, that might be the easiest for someone to start. It is only going to be one song, so I wont have to set up a whole show.

I was thinking about outlining the bed in lights and hanging them on the traction bars.
 
ksmith247 said:
I was thinking about outlining the bed in lights and hanging them on the traction bars.
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You could use a row of little prescription pill bottles and put a light (LED pixel) in them to make "medical luminaries". You could run a chase sequence over them or make them flash, etc.

You could also make a pixel matrix and place it on the headboard, and use it to display a doctor's face, dancing stethoscope, etc. Or, make a doctor, nurse, and patient singing heads (like the Hallowe'en pumpkin or monster quarters featured in some of the threads on this forum), with 4 - 5 channels to animate the eyes + mouths so they could lip sync to some songs. You could have a laptop on the bed running a few sequences, and have a pair of speakers hooked up to it so the audience can hear the music while the lights blink and flash in sync.

don
 
...and there's nothing like a twinkling colostomy bag to... no.... that's not a very good idea...
 
Man I wish they would let me decorate at work! Apparantly it is not appropriate these days due to varying beliefs, etc surrounding holidays.

I would save 1000 mL solution bags and cut the spiked end off. Put lights in the bags...a 25 CT of minis would do and connect them together with even spaces. String these from the traction to make a lighted IV bag banner. Instead of using a person in the bed for safety reasons use a wireframe or blowmold. If you want to get real creative get some lights or dumb strips and put under the bed to give a ground effects type of luminescence. I have more ideas but pecking at my phone is hard typing lol.

Also if you do put a blowmold or something in the bed. Put a IV pump next to the bed and have a string of minis from the pump/ solution infusing to the "patients" arm.

I work all night so when I'm staring at a hospital bed any more ideas come to me I will let you know!
 
Those are all great ideas. The pyxel matrix might be a little advanced for me since I just got my first controller this christmas, but I like the idea. I also dont have pyxel's yet.

We actually have a maniquin they could use on the bed for safety reasons. It is the LDR training dummy, so it looks pretty real.

I like the IV bag and pump idea. I might run that by the unit manager.

Whatever I do, has to be pretty simple, because I only have 2 weeks to get everything done, and I work the weekends so they are out.
 
Strother85 said:
You guys are making me subconsciously hold my breath....as this is what I do when I have to empty one of these.
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Maybe get a clean one and put some brown paper or something else in it (maybe a dark colored light), then string either a marque-style light string or 2 - 3 regular strings intertwined and cycle through them with a repeating pattern so it looks like the lights are "flowing" from it. :)

don
 
If you run into A/C power issues and hospital regulations, you might think about trying a HeadBlinker -- it's an 8-channel wireless Renard that's battery powered... Add a laptop... an Xbee on an Explorer board plugged into the laptop's USB port... you've got yourself a pretty safe solution and it's even portable because it's not tethered to an A/C wall socket...

Hmmm.... not sure what a surgeion would think if a patient were wheeled into the OR all blinky-flashy like that....
 
djulien said:
Maybe get a clean one and put some brown paper or something else in it (maybe a dark colored light), then string either a marque-style light string or 2 - 3 regular strings intertwined and cycle through them with a repeating pattern so it looks like the lights are "flowing" from it. :)

don
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Lol that is the best yet nastiest idea ever! :thup:
 
Thanks for all the great suggestions. I was showing my boss the animation and he thought it was enought lights that i had on it. I had to inform him there is never enough as long as its done right.
 
The IV bottles still exist, you just need to ask the pharmacist at the hospital. They might even have one that out of date expiration. As an idea, you could also put some red lights under the sheets as a heart beat for the bed.
 
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