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State of Florida Traffic Management Sharing video signals across jurisdictions
Madrid Barajas Airport Flexibility and versatility
Rijkswaterstaat Personal walls
Vienna Traffic Authority Integrated public transit management control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 09:56 Pagina 2
Contents
Barco news
3 Editorial
Traffic
4 State of Florida Traffic Management Sharing video signals across jurisdictions
7 Madrid Barajas Airport [Spain] Flexibility & versatility
Cover Story 12 Rijkswaterstaat [The Netherlands] Centralized management Madrid Barajas airport, Spain
15 Niagara Falls Bridge Commission [USA] Keeping Niagara Falls Bridge crossings safe and traffic Madrid Barajas Airport is Spain's busiest airport, handling flowing efficiently more than 40 million passengers a year between Spain's attractive capital city and hundreds of domestic, European and international destinations. 18 Vienna Traffic Authority [Austria] The big overview for Vienna Its new facilities, together with an excellent geographical location and important international air transportation network, now enable it to secure its leading position 20 Brisa [Portugal] among the principal airports of the world and as a major Managing motorways for people economic and decision making center on the continent. Further more, with this expansion, the airport will become an increasingly important hub airport, a major center for 22 Devon County Council [UK] connections and activity between Europe and America, The Highway Operations Control Center and in fact a vital gateway between America and Europe.
More info page 7 24 Olympic traffic control Athens’ traffic control rooms incorporate everything from large displays to networked visualization
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Editorial
hurricane evacuations. With Barco’s Barco’s solutions utilizing networked universal decoding solution, they were based technologies allowed the able to achieve this objective with less Rijkswaterstaat’s South West Directorate equipment and more flexibility thus to deploy a very flexible operational saving money, space while ensuring control center to centrally visualize the future expansion capabilities. overall situation and make the best trade-offs to maximize traffic flow for We shall also discuss airport the region. management needs for visualization such Barajas Airport in Madrid. The In addition to ports and airports, many owners and operators of Barajas airport other systems have all deployed large recognized that there is a benefit to overview solutions equipped with have a common visualization system advanced networking capabilities to that spans multiple functional areas to help ensure more efficient operations, Robert Wu Director of Market and Business Development improve operational efficiencies. They and future scalability of their systems. Barco Control Rooms wanted to ensure that the visualization These include road traffic management system utilized in every functional area of international crossings such as the will be interoperable to enable the many bridges of Niagara Falls Dear reader, sharing of information for overall connecting Canada and the United coordination of priorities. By selecting States, management of urban rail The demands on our transportation one unified visualization platform, they systems in Austria (Vienna); efficient systems and networks are increasing were also able to realize immediate centralized toll roads management of every day as the world economy gets savings in maintenance and supplier multiple toll roads in Portugal (Brisa); more integrated. In this ControlZone management costs. regional road and highways newsletter, we shall see examples of management in Devon County, UK, as airports, ports, international border From airports to ports, as global well as special events traffic and crossing management, rail systems, toll shipping demands increase, coordinated associated agencies management such roads, highways, as well as urban and central management of regional road as the 2004 Olympics in Athens. special events traffic management and rail traffic surrounding an centers utilize visualization solutions to international gateway become crucial to We at Barco strive to provide scalability, aid in their operations. ensure efficient flow of goods and the flexibility, and the best cost of viability of the gateway itself. The port ownership in our solutions by working In our first article, we will explore the city of Rotterdam, one of Europe’s together with our customers to management of a large scale busiest ocean ports, faces such a understand their needs and concerns. It transportation network in the State of challenge today. As it stands today, is our hope that you’ll see from the Florida in the USA. The State of Florida’s traffic management has to coordinate cases presented in this issue how Department of Traffic chose to deploy a and prioritize the flow of various modes committed we are as an organization to state wide IP network infrastructure as of transport in and out of the port and serve the specific needs of this market the basis of its strategy to allow among city to achieve maximum traffic flow and to provide the best technical other things the ability for its various efficiency – e.g. water and road traffic solution with maximum scalability and districts to share information across management such as drawbridge flexibility. jurisdictions to have better co-ordination openings, re-routing road traffic and in state wide events such as potential other bridge and tunnel management. We wish you an enjoyable read! I3 control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 09:57 Pagina 4
State of Florida Traffic Management [USA] Case Study
The State of Florida USA is one of many pioneers in utilizing digital IP technologies for its video signal feeds that it uses for its traffic management state wide. The reasons for this were many but one of them was to ensure easy transmission and eventually
interoperability across jurisdictions. This was envisioned to enable cross jurisdictional co-ordination in events such as state wide hurricane evacuations. To achieve this vision however, the key was to have a universal decoding capability for its control centers. This case study will explore why that need exists and how Barco’s solution has helped fulfill that need. The universal decoding role in enabling this vision can best be explained with two scenarios. The first is when there is a need to share video signals across different districts and jurisdictions. The second is for control
center operations who are interested in Sharing video signals across Add to that the numerous county and protecting their investments. jurisdictions city jurisdictions and there is a One of the most efficient ways to significant amount of coordination and coordinate a state wide event such as a information sharing that is required. hurricane evacuation is to enable The illustration (see next page) various control centers from different provides a graphical view of the jurisdictions to access each other’s potential challenge. video feeds that are monitoring the local traffic conditions directly – as This need to share however is opposed to having a description complicated by the fact that the video dictated over the telephone. In the systems deployed across different State of Florida, there are 7 districts jurisdictions often did not come from and one turnpike organization which the same supplier. Even though most each have their own control centers. suppliers claim to follow standards in
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their compressed digital outputs, there Universal decoding solution are still significant deviations and One control center would like to be options that would make their signals able to view 10 video feeds non-interoperable with each other. A simultaneously from a possible classic example is the decoder collection of its own 10 cameras, and 5 acknowledgement message that it from each of its 3 neighboring sends to the encoder to indicate that jurisdictions. In this case, the control the decoder is still “alive and listening”. center has to purchase 10 decoders for This message was never foreseen nor its own signal plus 15 more for each of standardized in the various video the 3 neighboring jurisdictions for a compression standards and hence total of 25 decoders to be able to have caused significant issues for the flexibility to view any mix of 10 interoperability. It was however signals. If there is a need to increase fortunate that most of the signals were the number of jurisdictions viewed or are capable of decoding any signal digitized over a standard IP network as the amount of signals viewed per from any encoder – be it signals from per the vision of the State of Florida. jurisdiction, then more decoders have its own system or any from the With digital IP transmission, the signals to be purchased even though the total neighboring jurisdictions. In other can be transmitted to the control center number of signals viewed will only be words, the control center need only easily. Traditionally therefore, in order no more than 10. purchase the same number of universal to view the video signals, the control decoders as the amount of signals it center had to purchase the specific However, consider if there exists a wants to view simultaneously. decoder of the supplier whose encoder universal decoder that is capable of was used to originally encode the decoding any signal from any supplier Back to the example, with a universal signal, to ensure a match. This is very of encoders. In this case, if the control decoder, the control center need only costly especially when the system center only wants to view 10 signals at buy 10 universal decoders versus 25 increases in scale. any one time, then it need only conventional supplier specific decoders. purchase 10 universal decoders which The savings are significant since the unit price of a decoder can range from €1000 up to €4000 per unit – not to mention rack space requirements. (see reducing control center equipment)
Even if there is no pressure for cross jurisdictional access, the universal decoding function also protects the investment of the control center. As was stated before, many suppliers of encoders though they can rightly claim standards compliance do have additional features and capabilities that make their solution non-interoperable with others. As such, without a universal decoding capability, the control center, as in the past, is often beholden unto a single supplier and are subject to the risks of having only one supplier of its solutions.
The universal decoding capability allows the control center to have freedom in its choice of technologies (e.g. multiple compression schemes) and suppliers.
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State of Florida Traffic Management
Reducing control center equipment Conclusions of the various transport department The second benefit scenario occurs In summary, the need to coordinate districts of the state of Florida, counties when there are significant amounts of across jurisdictions and the increasing and cities of Florida. As per Mr. Robert decoders being used. number of digital video camera signals J. DiChristopher, Municipal Services Consider that the video signals arriving used for traffic management, although Director of the City of Boca Raton, “We into the control centers are already achievable without the integrated wanted our investment to be state of digitized and have a specific picture universal decoder technically, would the art and as open and flexible as quality and delay (latency). To decode have been costly. As such, Barco was possible. The Barco TransForm A this signal into ‘analog’ would further successful in deploying its universal controller allowed us to reduce our reduce this quality and increase the decoding solutions for control room equipment count. latency. In addition, these decoders visualization into many control rooms require space, power and maintenance. Add to that, the majority of these signals are sent to the main control Different sources room display wall for visualization – i.e. one visualization system. Therefore, by integrating the decoder directly into the control room visualization controller which already processes the signals in Different jurisdiction zones digital format, the control center with different types of operations can realize significant encoder manufacturers savings of equipment and space.
Personal iMPath Networks wall or Decision or Vbrick desktop war room Cornet Coretec Bosch Axis Other encoder IP camera Analog video/camera LAN/WAN network
Remote or back up control room Control room of District A
Control room of District B
Traditional methods of decoding Integrated universal decoding - Shared signals can also be viewed signals from different jurisdictions by saving space, money, and in other locations or applications using different external providing maximum flexibility (non-integrated) decoders of specific 6I manufacturers control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 09:57 Pagina 7
Madrid Barajas Airport [Spain]
Madrid Barajas Airport is Spain's busiest airport, handling more than 40 million passengers a year between Spain's attractive capital city and hundreds of domestic, European and international destinations, and Barco has played a major part in its amazing development.
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Equipment installed:
COSEG- 12 2x2 OVERVIEW mDR50-DL COMED - OVERVIEW 7x2 cDR67-DL COSEA - OVERVIEW 6x2 cDR67-DL CYMES - 4 5x2 OVERVIEW cDR67-DL and 2 2x2 OVERVIEW mDR50-DL Coordination room - 7x2 OVERVIEW cDR67-DL Crisis Room - 3x2 OVERVIEW cDR67-DL Training room - 2x1 OVERVIEW cDR67-DL 350 analog video sources 50 IP video sources 80 RGB sources
The capacity at Madrid International Airport was doubled in early 2006 with the addition of the new Terminal 4 and two extra runways. Madrid Barajas Airport handles the majority of Spain's transatlantic flights, and is the foremost European airport for flights to Central and South America as well as a major hub for worldwide connections. The expansion of the airport reinforces Madrid as Spain’s air traffic capital and as one of the most important destinations in Europe and worldwide.
Its new facilities, together with an excellent geographical location and important international air transportation network, now enable it to secure its leading position among the principal airports of the world and as a major economic and decision making center on the continent. Further more, with this expansion, the airport will become an increasingly important hub airport, a major center for connections and activity between Europe and America, and in fact a vital gateway between America and Europe.
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Óscar Calvo Martín, Centro de Gestión Aeroportuaria (CGA), Proyecto ASCESIS-ISDEFE, AENA, Madrid Barajas Airport: Flexibility and versatility were the two most important features in the design. “
The Centro de Gestion • CYMES: Systems and equipment Aeroportuario (CGA) is the management coordination and management • Coordination room: Overall center for the new Madrid management Barajas Airport Terminal. It is • Training room: used for training new approximately 100 meters long operators and existing operators any and 40 meters wide. This center new technology. holds seven main control areas as • Crisis management room: access to follows. every camera and every screen
• COSEA: Service and incident The first five are located within the management area main control room while the training • COMED: Groundside management and crisis management areas are including surface radar, taxiways, located in two separate rooms. As is weather radar, etc. the norm, the CGA is operational 24/7 • COSEG: Surveillance area 365 days a year.
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“When designing the CGA there were the cars in the underground tunnels. using no less than 148 rear projection many considerations but the most Using the flexible visualization system, cubes. The cubes are of differing sizes important attributes were for the room the operators can integrate information and are grouped together in different to be flexible and versatile.” said Mr. from many disparate systems across configurations depending on the needs Óscar Calvo. Barco was selected for this the airport from crucial elements such of the seven separate functions. prestigious and vast installation based as the local and worldwide weather, Additionally, the operators have full on a set criteria laid out in a public the control of electricity and air- control over the cameras and can tender. Within the tender it was stated conditioning and even tracking move and zoom in or out as necessary. that the winning supplier had to be customer facilities such as the number It is believed that this is the first airport able to be completely versatile and of luggage trolley’s available. With this in the world to adopt this system of accommodate a number of different integrated view, the CGA can efficiently active monitoring of the entire airport sources simultaneously including RGB, and effectively serve as the overall in one central operation area in real IP and analogue video. This was easily management center for the entire time. accomplished with Barco’s visualization airport. system. In addition to technical Maintenance flexibility, this project required Barco’s To improve collaboration, each area has The maintenance of the CGA is solution as well as team members to a dedicated team of trained operators conducted by the room coordinator. be versatile. As different subsystems who are capable of not just working on “While the display walls are considered were awarded to different integrators, their own assigned responsibilities but to be part of the IT infrastructure and Barco, as the unified visualization also on other areas as well. This is taken care of by the IT department,” solution had to work with multiple important to maintain maximum Mr. Óscar Calvo Martín, Centro de integrators and their different control operator efficiency and effectiveness. Gestión Aeroportuaria (CGA), Proyecto systems and staff at any one time. ASCESIS-ISDEFE comments, “the lamps All of the monitoring is assisted by are so easy to change that we don’t The CGA is responsible to monitor and approximately 6000 cameras spread need IT for it as this is done by the manage the operations of every area around the airport. Up to 350 of the local team within the CGA.” of the airport from the movement of cameras are simultaneously monitored the aircraft, passengers and luggage to at any one time on Barco’s solution
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Terminal 4 In addition to the main room there are Barco facilities in Terminal 2. The CGRh24 room is where all flights are supervised and incidents are reviewed. The visualization is made up of three separate displays arranged in a curved configuration: the three displays in this area consist of a 5x3, 5x2, and a 4x2 configuration of Barco’s OVERVIEW mDG50-DL. There are numerous analog video input cards (16 inputs) to service these displays. There are plans to extend this facility to accommodate future expansion.
The Crisis room consists of a 5x3 configuration of Barco’s OVERVIEW mDG50-DL, also supplied with a number of analog video cards.
The future The system in place now perfectly meets the current needs of Madrid Barajas Airport. However, as stated by Mr. Óscar Calvo, there is still room for advancement, “I am well aware that the Barco solution is currently not used to its full capacity and, moving forward, I am keen to develop this capacity and use more functions in line with the management of the room and maximize the benefits of the full Barco solution”.
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Traffic management In the South West Netherlands Directorate (RWS-ZWN), there is a complex network of rivers and an equally complex network of tunnels and bridges to support the port and various economic activities of the region. One of the main concerns of the RWS-ZWN is to monitor the shipping traffic and ensure that bridges are raised in time for the ships to pass.
With some larger ships potentially taking up to several minutes to come to a stop, it is critical that the traffic is managed and clear of the bridges in time. It is also important for the RWS- ZWN to route traffic properly around Rijkswaterstaat [Netherlands] these raised bridges to ensure that the Centralized management road and rail networks feeding the port
The Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works, and Water Management, also known as the Rijkswaterstaat (RWS) is responsible for the management of all matters of transport nationally in the Netherlands. To achieve this, the RWS is organized into nine regional directorates spanning 12 provinces, 489 municipalities, seven greater city areas, and 48 water board districts.
In the South West Netherlands Directorate, around the major port city of Rotterdam, the integrated management of both roadways and waterways becomes very significant. Historically, its natural harbour and its strategic location at the mouth of the Rhine and Maas rivers made it the main land-sea transfer point for the rich output of the industrial heartlands of Germany, France, and Belgium. While its natural waterways still provide very cost effective transport, road and rail transport have also matured over the years and also provide alternative transport for goods from areas not traditionally served by the Rhine. As such today, the efficiency of the Rotterdam port are impacted by the traffic flows of the road and rail networks as well as those of the waterways and especially by the interaction of the two modes of transport. Therefore, the integrated management of all modes of traffic is key to ensure the continued effectiveness. This namely translates into how effectively the RWS can manage its complex infrastructure of waterways and the bridges and tunnels that span them in this region.
Flexibility Before the Barco solution was installed, the RWS-ZWN managed each bridge and tunnel individually at its own control center. At each control center, a collection of traditional CRT monitors were used to display local traffic sensor information as well as applications. These monitors were laid out so that the content was in the right order, for example, the mouth of the tunnel, 12I control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 10:07 Pagina 13
(as well as serving other stakeholders) Recently as traffic volume increased, are not adversely affected by such delays and actions on individual delays. To overcome some significant bridges and tunnels have started to bottlenecks, the RWS-ZWN has over the affect traffic flows on adjacent bridges years built some tunnels to alleviate and tunnels, as well as traffic flow on delays. However, the tunnels them- the waterways. Therefore integrated selves also present a safety and management and co-ordination of the management concern. This is because once “independent” bridges and it is equally important that the traffic in tunnels are required to balance the the tunnels be closely monitored and needs the various modes of transport incidents cleared quickly, to ensure and maintain maximum efficiency for smooth running of the road and rail all users – not only the port. transport infrastructure.
The vision was to provide a flexible display system based on individual control points. “
middle of the tunnel and then the exit be centralized to allow better overall be configured monitor a single incident to aid understanding of this situation. coordination. Thus a new central jointly in order to allow more resources While this system worked, it was control room was built to consolidate to work on major problems however, costly to maintain and the once independent and distributed simultaneously. Last but not least, manage, and did not have any operation centers. In this new control these control points are to be equipped flexibility. In addition, the individual center, the vision was to provide a with large displays to allow the management of each bridge or tunnel flexible display system that is based on supervisor or other operators in the did not adequately resolve the overall individual “control points”. These same control room “over the shoulder” network efficiency issue. Therefore a control points can be used to monitor viewing access of each control point. new solution was sought. The new any tunnel or bridge in question. In This is to facilitate better collaboration solution mandated that the operations addition, multiple control points could and decision making. I13 control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 10:07 Pagina 14
The Barco solution With the help of touch panels, the The benefits are that the operators can In the new control room, RWS-ZWN operators of each control point can use any control point to control any deployed 15 control points (12 for adapt the display and change their remote bridge or tunnel to enable fast bridges and 3 for tunnels). For each views at the touch. For example, the and accurate decision making, and in tunnel control point, Barco delivered operator could switch display to show addition, with such flexibility, any two modules of 67 inch displays in a sources from one bridge to the sources control points can be used as backup 2x1 configuration which are visually from another, or remain at the same unit of the other should a unit fail. integrated as one display wall. For the bridge but display different cameras or bridges, a 3x1 67 inch Barco display applications, as required. Moreover, This flexibility to display any signal solution was utilized. These large due to the set up of the system, each anywhere is due primarily to the displays were used for collaboration operator has their own personalized display controller. Barco’s Transform A purposes as well as to display the large layout (of displayed items) regardless controllers were used to drive each amount of pixels required to of control point used. As such, Barco display. These controllers are simultaneously showing application operators are able to move about the able to accept video feeds from the data as well as video all on one screen control room and, again with the touch Gigabit Ethernet networks used to in a large enough size to be viewed panels, adapt the layout of any control transmit the different types of signals simultaneously by the user as well as point to their own preferred viewing from the various sites to the central others within the control center. requirements. location. The network connects 16 remote sites including tunnels, remote controlled bridges and special-purpose lanes to the new centre. This network is able to transport up to 600 video streams simultaneously, including audio, various telemetry and control data, and LAN-services.
To enable effective remote control of the system, high quality video images and a very high availability of the services are key. As such the Integrated Streaming Video Card from Barco were used within the Transform A controllers, to allow direct connection to the Gigabit Ethernet network to minimize any image quality loss as well potential signal delays. With this solution, the control point displays can present any signal with high quality and minimal delay, as and when required.
This case clearly demonstrates the need for centralized management to ensure multi-modal large network efficiency. In addition, it also clearly shows that there exist solutions that can support such operational models.
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Niagara Falls Bridge Commission [USA] Security solution keeps Niagara Falls Bridge crossings safe and traffic flowing efficiently
Niagara Falls' reputation as a natural world wonder beckons visitors from around the globe. But it is the bridges that actually bring most of them here. No other single factor contributes more
to tourism growth - indeed the export trade economy overall - than the NFBC's three monumental linkages of concrete and steel. Niagara Falls crossings rank second only to Kennedy International as the busiest port of entry between Windsor (ON, Canada) and Detroit (MI, USA).
The breathtakingly beautiful journey Some 160 video cameras and 96 Security cameras have been placed at across the Niagara River between the access control points have been placed strategic locations along the bridges United States and Canada, now flows at the bridges as well as at six and at the Customs’ plazas at either better and is more secure with the U.S./Canadian Customs’ Plazas and the end of each bridge. In addition to help of a new system that includes NFBC’s new $5.8 million administrative security, cameras are also used to help video surveillance and access control. headquarters in Lewiston, New York. to clear up any traffic incident or The Niagara Falls Bridge Commission Security functions are housed in the issues. Depending on traffic conditions, (NFBC) owns and operates the headquarters' Operations Center. the Operations Center is able to change Lewiston-Queenston, Rainbow and the direction of the traffic flow in the Whirlpool Bridges. Each year nearly 12 Secure passage lanes at the Lewiston-Queenston million passages and $32 billion in The mission of the NFBC is to make Bridge. Video cameras in each lane trade cross the bridges. sure the facilities are secure for the enable the operators to view traffic; safe and efficient movement of people electronic signs tell the public which and goods across the border in both lanes are open and which are closed. directions.
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As tourists, commuters and people transport goods across the three bridges connecting the U.S. and Canadian sides of the Niagara Frontier, a sophisticated array of cameras and access control devices will continue to ensure they have a safe passage. By having a visual verification of the reported problem, the appropriate specialist teams and resources may be deployed more efficiently and quickly to resolve the issues.
The NFBC began installation of a Lenel OnGuard 2005 security management system two years ago, and while the system is in a state of continual growth and change, it is now complete and fully functional. The system works in conjunction with a Barco display wall on which camera images are displayed. An Axis Communication network camera system is used for both Axis digital cameras and to convert Pelco analog cameras to digital outputs.
In-house Operations Center operators view the cameras and coordinate responses to alarms around the clock. Michael O’Reilly, Head of Management Information Systems (MIS), says “If there is an incident, a video pops up showing the incident point to the operator. The converged network then transports data, voice and video. Once video enters our network, it is routed to the servers. From there, it is Agency cooperation and integrated The NFBC, however found out after transported to any client that requests digital solutions research that this was a pioneering video anywhere on the network, The NFBC has always been a hallmark move because no-one else had including and mainly, at the Operations of inter-agency and international co- attempted it on this scale. Center. The video goes to two security- operation due to its unique nature and The NFBC needed a solution that designated workstations and directly to mandate. The only way to operate offered a smooth migration path the display wall. The wall can be successfully for so many years was to because a fork lift upgrade to the configured in many different ways and have a cooperative relationship with analog switching equipment and other in the future the operators will be able both local police and federal customs analog support hardware, when things to change the views with the click of a officials. finally did go digital, was not mouse.” In Canada, they work with local law acceptable operationally or financially. enforcement agencies, Ministry of Brent Gallaugher, Agency Relations and Transportation (MTO) and Canada After extensive research and Security Manager, says “The images on Border Services Agency. discussions with many different the display wall are extremely clear In the United States, they work with vendors, the NFBC found that most of and crisp. We can either project one local law enforcement agencies, the solutions were not fully integrated large image or a combination of many Niagara International Transportation between the hardware and software, different feeds onto the display wall. Technology Coalition (N.I.T.T.E.C.), and and generally were not acceptable. The Images from up to 14 (16 with 4 SVC’s) U.S. Customs and Border Protection. deciding factor in the end was digital cameras at this size are readily integration and migration. The NFBC viewable at one time. This significantly As such, to share situational awareness found that while many vendors met reduces response times and helps us to and to help facilitate decision making, almost all of the design criteria, they make better decisions.” the NFBC needed a leading edge fully were not able to provide a direct integrated digital solution that was digital streaming solution nor were flexible enough to share their they planning on developing this in the information across multiple agencies foreseeable future. and systems.
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When NFBC approached Barco on a Thomas Garlock, General Manager, NFBC: direct digital streaming solution, the The new state-of-the-art 24/7 Operations Center is exact solution that NFBC wanted for MJPEG streams was not available. By a critical part of the safe passage of people and partnering with Barco they received a commerce across the three bridges and through the promise to deliver the desired solution for MJPEG through a Barco API that six plazas. NFBC could use for higher level system integration. NFBC also worked closely with the security vendor Lenel to “ develop a Barco-Lenel integration via the API that could seamlessly control achieve the hallmark interagency co- what it had promised with honesty, the wall. Together, the three operation that NFBC is known for. professionalism, and integrity. companies agreed on a timeline and Since the solution is all digital, the I foresee a bright future of co-operation deliverables resulting in the current system can be scaled much easier than between our three organizations successful site. an analog solution. together and would not hesitate to recommend Barco to anyone. If you The future of integrated security Michael O’Reilly says “With ground look at all of the features of Barco’s The fully integrated solution allows breaking projects like this, it is products and the vast amount of NFBC to stream both digital streams important to team up and align knowledge and skill they have in the directly from the Lenel Security system, yourself with people who have a industry, I do not believe there is which includes both live and recorded proven track record that can deliver another viable choice for a ‘streaming video streams available from the what they promise. Barco and Lenel digital’ solution today. As it turns out clustered DVR’s directly to the Barco are those kinds of people. It was and we may have done more work to get display wall. This integration allows for still is a pleasure to work with them there but our hard work paid off in the future developments for other agencies throughout this project. Barco was system we have and the savings we to view and share their signals to open for development and delivered have made.”
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Vienna Traffic Authority [Austria] The big overview for Vienna
With approximately 8,000 employees and nearly 750 million passengers in 2005 the Each one of the 15 logical display walls is controlled by a Barco TransForm A Vienna Traffic Authority ranks among the largest urban public transportation services graphic controller. The visualization is in Europe. It was a particular challenge to create a suitable control center which realized by control system pictures on the rear projection modules of the incorporates current needs as well as being ready for the future requirements for the OVERVIEW mDG50-DL type with XGA resolution. The size and configuration of operational safety of the fleet and the corresponding infrastructure. the logical video walls are between 2x1 modules for situation-specific information up to 4x3 modules for connected energy representations.
After several years of planning with the Overview at a glance highest requirements in terms of The entire display wall consists of 144 operating ergonomics, Vienna Traffic (48 x 3) modules with a diagonal of 50 Authority can now boast the largest inches per module. display wall in Austria in their new traffic At present 88 modules thereof are control center in Erdberg. Additionally equipped with rear-projection units. they have installed an exemplary Further modules will be upgraded as concept to guarantee the operational required. reliability of the entire subway and tramway. The display wall is divided into several areas for monitoring the different underground lines, the electricity network of underground lines as well as of the tramway.
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Barco’s state-of-the art technology and its ability to Supplementary video signals are permanently displayed on separate meet the Traffic Authority of Vienna’s economic video monitors above the display wall. criteria made Barco the obvious choice. Additional important video pictures can be shown in scalable windows on the display wall, and can be locked in order “ to support the common evaluation of certain situations. This comprehensive overview ensures the fast and simple evaluation of the situation and most effective monitoring of the entire For the visualization of the individual The operator has a simultaneous infrastructure. underground lines there is a separate overview of all trains and underground surface with 6x1 modules and a total routes and can immediately locate the resolution of 6144 x 768 pixels exact position based on the track available in each case enabling the section allocation and recognize operators to see all relevant details of whether a train is on schedule or the linear network in one view. Thanks delayed. When an incident occurs, the The operators in the front row receive their to the high resolution of the position of the emergency-exits and information on the two lower rows of display representation surface it is possible to the intended escape directions can be cubes in the form of diagrams showing the lines and situation-specific details within the illustrate a large amount of detail in a viewed and local assistance is better information. The ascending rear workplaces coherent way. This is not possible with supported. use additional summary presentations on the a traditional monitor stack. upper module rows.
The entire décor of the control center, from the furniture to the control system pictures up to the color of the lining of the video wall, was also coordinated and specified together with ergonomists according to the customer guidelines. I19 control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 10:14 Pagina 20
Brisa [Portugal] Managing motorways for people
Brisa Auto-Estradas de Portugal, The Operational Coordination Center The implementation of the Carcavelos entered into operation gradually in Operational Coordination Center (COCC) founded in 1972, is the largest 2004. The target was to guarantee new is a voluntary contribution by Brisa to Portuguese motorway operator and an levels of road safety on the Brisa the promotion of road safety in network, better traffic management, as Portugal. important player in the traffic sector in well as greater network flexibility. The COCC has its own set of objectives Europe. Brisa currently operates on a These targets have been achieved and being to ensure the integrated concession basis a network of 11 exceeded as the center also provides operational management of the Brisa comprehensive information on traffic motorway network, to increase the motorways constituting the main conditions on motorways and therefore effectiveness of traffic management, to generating greater capabilities for the develop the relationship with users and Portuguese road links, connecting the co-ordination of the roadside assistance to guarantee an even higher level of country from north to south and from and the management of maintenance safety. works. east to west.
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Rui Camolino, Director, Brisa: Thanks to a long-term relationship and trust in Barco, Brisa decided that Barco had all the ingredients to realize this impressive project. “ Increased operational efficiency decoding the wavelet streams. This Central operational control center The Operational Coordination Center is significantly reduces the space The COCC manager is apprised of equipped with the state-of-the-art requirements as well as equipment everything that goes on in the regional equipment and will direct the activities costs by removing the need for external control centers. The COCC manager also performed at the 14 regional Brisa decoders. With its added capability to makes sure the appropriate procedure operational centers distributed host client software applications, the is followed and decides which actions throughout the country. This, in turn, iTRAFFIC integrated system provides should be taken by the assistance team increases effectiveness & operational BRISA with a complete visual overview such as calling an ambulance, etc. efficiency and reducing costs. Brisa of its Intelligent Transportation System. Each section on the display wall centralized the activities of the regional iTRAFFIC is designed to provide a control represents a region. Each operator centers in the enlarged main control center with a real-time collaborative controls 2 regional control centers. In center and set up a CCTV system and work experience for monitoring, the center of the display wall the communication network of 12GB to be response dispatching/coordination, operator can see indications such as able to support the regional teams in all access/flow control, recording and MSS, specific messages, road works, their activities such as breaking the overall systems control for twenty-four and accidents to name just a few all on network, putting fiber, cameras, VNS, hours a day, seven days a week a map. counting and classification stations. In operations. Barco's solution at the OCC' The map also indicates the vehicles the future, automatic incident detection by 'Barco's OVERVIEW display solution is that are patrolling the motorways and systems will record images that will an integral part of the operation. Barco's assistance cars with GPS systems. allow Brisa to respond immediately to patented stitched technology provides Therefore, the main control center is any incident that may occur. operators with a virtually seamless kept up to date as to where exactly the image on a 13.33 m x 3 m (total assistance cars are located. Brisa chose State-of-the-art video surveillance resolution of 10420 x 2304) screen, to invest in this large display wall over IP almost invisible to operators. The because together with Barco's wall Technology was a major consideration in display wall consists of a flexible and management software APOLLO, all the development of Brisa. Video images scalable OVERVIEW cPG67 display system operators can have the same are captured by the approximately 500 in a 10x3 configuration controlled by a information during an incident. legacy analogue Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras Barco TRANSFORM A controller enabling and are directly digitized, encoded by the simultaneous monitoring of 96 live After careful consideration and General Electric (VisioWave) equipment video images. The controller is designed analysis, Barco was mainly chosen and compressed via wavelet technology. with high bandwidth backplane chassis because of its pioneering technology The wavelet video streams are then architecture. Therefore, the controller and reliability. Mr Rui Camolino, transported across the IP network and can serve as a universal decoding Director at Brisa, said “Barco was able can be monitored in local operational platform, capable of accepting both to offer this unique solution needed to centers or in the central operational analog and streaming video input accomplish the goals of Brisa. Thanks coordination center. Barco's iTRAFFIC signals simultaneously. The TRANSFORM A to a long-term relationship and trust in solution provides an display system that interfaces with other third party Barco, Brisa decided that Barco had all integrates a universal streaming video systems through the open API. the ingredients to realize this decoder that is capable of directly impressive project.”
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Devon County Council [UK] The Highway Operations Control Center
The Barco display provides us with the ability to adapt to future developments easily. “ 22I “ control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 10:18 Pagina 23
The Highway Operations Control Center (HOCC) has been established to enable Chris Cranston stated, “one of the main benefits of the Barco display was that Devon County Council to provide an effective operational response to the demands it enables us to quickly and easily of the Traffic Management Act 2004 and its other legal responsibilities. Forming an change the layout as required. By being so flexible the operator is integral part of the Traffic Manager’s Unit (TMU), The HOCC operates 24 hours a day, able to react quickly to emergencies and make fast and accurate decisions seven days a week. Its main purpose is to deal with dangers and obstructions on as they have a good overview of the the highway and to keep traffic moving which is achieved through monitoring the whole situation in one place”.
network using Intelligent Traffic Systems to supplement information from the police With the ability to visualize the state of the complete network, the control and public, managing the network to ensure works on the highway are co-ordinated center staff are trained to respond in a and safe and disruption due to the weather and other incidents minimized, and quick and efficient manner. They are able to contact council staff to deal informing the travelling public about the state of the network through the internet with incidents as well as the emergency services, environment and media. agency and the adjoining councils and highways agencies. The HOCC contains an array of state of the art technology which allows information to be gathered from across the country’s highway network and be presented to the Full use is made of the Intelligent control center staff. It is the Barco display wall brings all the following information Traffic Systems to assist in the together: weather information and satellite images from 35 county council owned management of traffic. This includes roadside weather stations. changing the timing of traffic signals using the Urban Traffic Control • Closed circuit television from over 40 locations across the county computer, setting variable message • Webcam images from a further 30 locations signs to warn of delays and changing • Real-time traffic flow information including speed and volume priorities as necessary. • Real-time journey times (from automatic number plate recognition cameras) at over 60 locations • Urban traffic control systems indicating congestion in the conurbations and monitoring for faults • Telephone reports of incident affecting the network, including diesel and oil spills, collisions, fallen trees, flooding, landslides, snow, ice traffic signal failures etc. • Receiving warnings including severe weather and flooding from professional partners
Before deciding on the Barco display Chris Cranston, Operations and Communications Manager for Devon County Council, explored all the options including, front and rear projection, CRT monitors and LCD solutions. Everything was considered in the selection process, life costs, ergonomics, flexibility, and image quality. It was after a full review of these factors that the Barco solution was selected as the best of all the options available. I23 control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 10:18 Pagina 24
Olympic traffic control Athens’ traffic control rooms incorporate everything from large displays to networked visualization
During the Olympics 2004, Barco with With a large enough overview of their operations at a glance, managers were its partner in Greece, Telmaco, installed able to make better decisions and also nine control rooms to assist Athens in make decisions faster for the benefit of their users. The size of visualization managing their enhanced Olympic displays does matter when the system being managed is large, has many infrastructure – including highways, sensors and where one failure can subway, tram service, security and propagate very rapidly across the entire system. As such, the overview of police, telecommunications, water the entire system on a large enough scale in real time is crucial for the management and emergency services operators to understand how a (ambulance service). situation is developing. This is particularly evident when one is via alternate routes should be executed trying to manage systems such as immediately, and various intersections Traditionally, large display walls highway networks, subways, road and on-ramps should be closed off. The deployed in control centers would have systems, electrical power grids, and choice of specific routes and been primarily used for public relations security. Consider the case where intersections could be decided quickly and educational purposes. However, in multiple events are impacting a large by reviewing the large displays Athens, where the scale of operations system and one has to decide how showing the state of the entire system was very large, the need for an best to prioritize and respond to ensure and observing how the impact is overview to help coordinate responses minimal “spill over” effects. rippling outward from the “epicenter”. were pressing. In Athens’ experience, each of the above service branches of A classic example in traffic is when an In such a centralized management, the the city of Athens enjoyed significant incident happens on the highway that effectiveness and availability of scarce benefits in using Barco’s visualization stops traffic flow. In such a scenario, a resources (such as helicopter technology. coordinated response to redirect traffic ambulances) can be enhanced by bringing appropriate resources to bear in a concentrated manner when and as needed – to borrow a security term: force multiplication.
Therefore, in 2004, the various service branches in Athens could provide world-class service in hosting such a major event without also having to deal with crippling staffing challenges, like training, for a one-off event. In 2004, the level of technological development allowed large networks of cameras to be digitized and remotely monitored. This was the key enabler for such centralized operations and force multiplication.
However, most of these centers typically operated independently of each other. While each was efficient in its own right, collaboration across
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centers would have provided even more beneficial results. If multiple services were to be able to share the same situational awareness and knowledge of priorities, then the responses would be even more efficient.
Consider the case of the traffic incident again. The best method to re-establish normal traffic flow would be to clear the incident away as soon as possible. How does one decide what resources to send and how soon and from where? In the past, a police officer, a fire brigade and an ambulance team would have been dispatched simultaneously to the location in question whether or not all three services were warranted.
By knowing the real cause of the incident – perhaps it was just a broken down car that needs towing, or a vagrant trying to cross the highway – the city need only send a subset of the typical services required increasing its efficiency and effectiveness.
Therefore, having a common operational picture across all service branches of the host city will allow the major stakeholders to develop a shared situational awareness to better enhance the use of scarce resources and provide better user services.
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Such an image is typically composed from three different sources on the display wall – the highway sensor system, the CCTV system, and the GIS (Geographical Information Systems) maps. The knowledge generated by combining the outputs of three such systems in a single view provides all decision makers with the ability to properly judge what the response should be. Sharing this judgment with other heads of services will also allow them to see what their decision should be and perhaps tell these other services how to redeploy their own resources.
Continuing with the incident example, traffic management staff having shared this “knowledge” with the ambulance service, the ambulance service may decide that the closest resource to
Olympics
To this end, these service-specific traffic management center control control rooms should have the ability room to display the location of the to share the knowledge they have incident on the map, the video clip of generated on their overviews with the live event (to determine how best each other. Such knowledge transfer to respond to the incident), and the may be done over the regular state of all transit routes near the telephone connections but, as the epicenter. saying goes, “a picture says a thousand words”. Ideally, the composed image of maps, cameras, and sensor inputs on the control room display should be viewable from other control centers to facilitate maximum collaboration. It is important that these views be provided in context and verbatim as the composition of the view contains knowledge. Referring back to the traffic incident example, it is typical for the Ekav Ekav 26I control_room_magazine_traffic_3.qxd:control_room_magazine_#6282.qxd 10-01-2007 10:18 Pagina 27
Shared situational awareness will provide a better experience for all participants in the 2008 Olympics. “
serve the incident may not be best Media networks (with their own because that particular resource is also control centers) also represent a key caught in the traffic jam resulting from partner in managing any situation. By the incident and that perhaps a more sharing with the media the appropriate distant resource approaching from the awareness, the media can help opposite direction may be better used. transmit such knowledge to the public. In addition, since this second resource This practice has long proven its was moved out of place, it may be benefits, as evidenced by media report best to replace it by adding more on- services on traffic conditions. call staff that have not been deployed. Cos It is most appropriate that the At the next Olympics in 2008, with the refinement of large-scale visualization advancements in networking and and control should culminate in compression technology, various Beijing’s push for a Digital Olympics control center operations may be where potentially a managed, shared further improved with networked situational awareness will provide a visualization capabilities. Furthermore, better experience for all participants in with such capabilities, the public and the 2008 Olympics – be it the latest user communities may also be updated news of a sporting event taking place through the sharing of such contextual or the current state of the highway. information (after appropriate filtering) Tram to further improve public relations and education.
EYDAP
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Barco’s networked visualization
ControlZone
For more info: [email protected]
Publisher: Barco Control Rooms Noordlaan 5, 8520 Kuurne Belgium tel. +32 (0)56 36 89 80
Contributors: Antonio Escudero, Shane O’Reilly, Joanne Grigg, Wilfried Stoehr, Simon Turtle, Kirsten Vanhees, Robert Wu and Hartmut Zierold
Art & design: Nathalie Reynaert
Photographs by courtesy of Brisa (Portugal), Devon County Council (UK), FDOT4 (USA), FDOT6 (USA), Madrid Barajas Airport (Spain), Niagara Falls Bridge Commission (USA), Olympic Games (Greece), Rijkswaterstaat (The Netherlands), Traffic Welsh (UK), VCNON (The Netherlands) and Vienna Traffic Authority (Austria) Operational excellence and increased If you'd like to receive further (electronic) issues of this newsletter, flexibility for 24/7 operations please go to www.barcocontrolrooms.com
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