The work inside a traffic control room is versatile, reacting emergency situations, controlling of traffic signals, managing congestion, monitoring video cameras administrate networks or controlling mission-critical data in 24/7 operation. Different factors affect the daily work of traffic control room operators, like changing weather circumstances, failure of traffic signals, accidents, breakdowns or other events like terrorism or vandalism. In order having a good and immediate overview and to being able to monitor all these mission-critical data at the same time most traffic control rooms use as a central overview unit videowalls. These large screen system in general consist of a matrix of rear projection cubes ore LCD monitors, connected to a graphics controller and administrated by a display management software. The advantage of these kind of systems is that incidents, failures or problems can be determined immediately and that the information can be shared with other control room operators in order to fix such problems quickly and to initiate the necessary provisions.
The work of such traffic control rooms is very important as their provisions keep the traffic running, giving immediate help in case of accidents and warning road users in case of bad weather conditions for example.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
PMR Expo
PMRExpo 2008 Congress Center Leipzig (CCL), Germany
As annual industry meeting place for professional mobile radio (PMR and Trunked Radio) and command & control centres PMRExpo can register continual increase for many years. Also this year the meeting came up with a new record participation
25th to 27th November 2008, Congress Center Leipzig (CCL), Germany
http://www.pmrexpo.com/index.php?id=16&L=1
As annual industry meeting place for professional mobile radio (PMR and Trunked Radio) and command & control centres PMRExpo can register continual increase for many years. Also this year the meeting came up with a new record participation
25th to 27th November 2008, Congress Center Leipzig (CCL), Germany
http://www.pmrexpo.com/index.php?id=16&L=1
Exhibition on Railway sector
Biggest exhibition worldwide for all products and services related to railways:
http://www1.messe-berlin.de/vip8_1/website/MesseBerlin/htdocs/www.innotrans.de/index_e.html
Innotrans Berlin 23. - 26.09.2008
http://www1.messe-berlin.de/vip8_1/website/MesseBerlin/htdocs/www.innotrans.de/index_e.html
Innotrans Berlin 23. - 26.09.2008
CCR Summit 2008 - int. command & control room summit 2008
1st and 2nd of October there will be an int. command and control room summit in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Further information: www.rbenw.com
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
IP video surveillance market grew 48 percent in 2007
Scottsdale, Arizona (USA)MultiMedia Intelligence reports that the market for IP/Networked video surveillance cameras grew nearly 50 percent in 2007, to approach USD 500 million worldwide. This growth is nearly four times the growth rate of the broader video surveillance equipment market, which also includes CCTV cameras, digital video recorders (DVRs) and network video recorders (NVRs), and IP Encoder/Streamers. While IP/networked video surveillance camera units and revenue are growing rapidly, they remain a small percentage of the overall surveillance market. The outlook for continued growth of IP/Networked video surveillance is strong. However, the barriers to it overtaking traditional CCTV surveillance will prove enduring. "The transition from traditional CCTV surveillance to networked digital surveillance is revolutionary for the physical security industry, according to Mark Kirstein, president of MultiMedia Intelligence. "Yet this transition is also seen as over-hyped and under-performing compared to many expectations. Both are true."MultiMedia Intelligence's new research also found:- IT-oriented companies such as Cisco and EMC are adding a new competitive dynamic. Focused surveillance competitors, such as Axis Communications, IndigoVision, March Networks, Nice Systems and Verint, are leveraging the growth of IP/networked surveillance to take on the legacy surveillance equipment manufacturers. The new competitive environment is drastically accelerating product innovation. - Growth in the DVR market overall is slowing. Network video recorders, both hardware-based and software-based, are emerging as the key growth category.- The semiconductor opportunities in DVRs and IP/networked surveillance equipment are strong. Companies, such as Texas Instruments and Techwell, have established a strong position in their respective segments. A variety of competitors including Analog Devices, Aptina, NextChip, OmniVision, PentaMicro, Pixim, and Stretch are positioning themselves in the key growth categories of video processing/Codecs and image sensors.- With strong expertise in physical security, the legions of dealers and VARs are generally not experts in networking and IP technology. This lack of expertise is a major barrier to adoption of networked video among end users. "Internet Protocol (IP)/Networked Video Surveillance Market: Equipment, Technology & Semiconductors" analyzes the IP/Networked surveillance market within the context of the broader video surveillance industry. The research examines the value chain from end-users to distribution/sales, integrators, equipment manufacturers, software vendors, and semiconductor providers. MultiMedia Intelligence's expertise is based on years of researching the physical security, digital camera and semiconductor markets. The report forecasts and segments markets by product category, including CCTV & IP cameras, Encoder/Streamers, DVR/NVR, and surveillance software & video content analytics. In addition, detailed technology segmentation and forecasts are included for semiconductors in each product category, video signal processors & codecs, image sensors (CMOS/CCD), camera resolution, and network interfaces (PoE, Wi-Fi/Mesh, others). Forecasts include units, revenue, ASPs at the equipment, software and semiconductor level by product type.
source: www.securityworldhotel.com
source: www.securityworldhotel.com
Study on demand of security equipment
Global demand for security equipment will climb 7.8 percent annually through 2012, claims Freedonia in their new report "World Security Equipment to 2012".
Strongest gains will occur in the underdeveloped markets of Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa/Middle East and Latin America. Electronic security products will post stronger sales advances than mechanical security equipment.This study analyzes the USD 62.1 billion world security equipment industry. It presents historical demand data for the years 1997, 2002 and 2007, and forecasts for 2012 and 2017 by product (e.g., access controls, CCTV surveillance, alarms, locks); market (commercial and industrial, government and institutional, residential); world region (e.g., Western Europe, North America, Asia/Pacific); and for 28 countries.The study also considers market environment factors, details industry structure, evaluates company market share and profiles 41 industry players, including Assa Abloy, United Technologies and Honeywell International.
source: www.securityworldhotel.com
Strongest gains will occur in the underdeveloped markets of Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa/Middle East and Latin America. Electronic security products will post stronger sales advances than mechanical security equipment.This study analyzes the USD 62.1 billion world security equipment industry. It presents historical demand data for the years 1997, 2002 and 2007, and forecasts for 2012 and 2017 by product (e.g., access controls, CCTV surveillance, alarms, locks); market (commercial and industrial, government and institutional, residential); world region (e.g., Western Europe, North America, Asia/Pacific); and for 28 countries.The study also considers market environment factors, details industry structure, evaluates company market share and profiles 41 industry players, including Assa Abloy, United Technologies and Honeywell International.
source: www.securityworldhotel.com
Saudi Arabia homeland security market outlook
Washington, DC (USA)With a cumulative 2007-2018 Homeland Security (HLS) market of USD 115 billion, Saudi Arabia is the 2nd largest HLS market in the world after the U.S, claims Homeland Security Research in a fresh report named "Saudi Arabia Homeland Security Market Outlook - 2009-2018".
Saudi Arabia's Homeland Security market is unlike any other market in the world. It is the only country whose very survival is threatened by terrorism resulting from both internal (homegrown infiltration of Al Qaeda and the Shia minority) and external forces (e.g. the threat of a nuclear Iran, an annual Hajj pilgrimage of millions, the security of 24 percent of the world's oil reserves threats). With nearly unlimited monetary resources resulting from the soaring price of oil, the Kingdom created a complex maze of 24 redundant HLS-HLD organizations numbering more than 250,000 people. Actively spending its resources on state-of-the-art technologies and services, Saudi Arabia is creating globally unparalleled business opportunities, some of which include: Saudi-Iraqi border fence & Saudi-Yemen border Fence:Description: Hundreds of miles of border & perimeter protection technologies.Opportunities: Computer-controlled surveillance equipment, electronic gates, thermal imaging equipment, advanced communication systems, electronic detection equipment, cameras.Oil industryDescription: Additional 35 000 people, doubling airport and maritime security personel over 2008-2018 period.Opportunities: IT, perimeter protection equipment & personnel, hazmat decontamination, risk assesment, maritime security.Private sectorDescription: Banking & Financial, Utilities, Infrastructure, Transport.Opportunities: Perimeter control, emergency planning, VIP protection, access control, biometrics.This landmark report represents several researcher years, dozens of interviews, and in-depth analysis of thousands of documents; the resulting produce is a comprehensive roadmap of this huge and intriguing Homeland Security market. Some highlights include:- Detailed deciphering of the complex multi-tier, inter-dependent, Saudi organizations, employing over 250,000 people, and devoted exclusively to HLS - making major procurement decisions.- 18 HLS sub-segment market forecasts and analysis (e.g. Aviation Security, Counter-terror Intel, Maritime, Saudi Oil & Gas security, Ministry of Interior, Private Sector security, IT).- Dozens of Saudi Arabian market business opportunities segmented by HLS industry (e.g. Intel, Cyber-security, Permeter Protection).
Source: www.securityworldhotel.com
Saudi Arabia's Homeland Security market is unlike any other market in the world. It is the only country whose very survival is threatened by terrorism resulting from both internal (homegrown infiltration of Al Qaeda and the Shia minority) and external forces (e.g. the threat of a nuclear Iran, an annual Hajj pilgrimage of millions, the security of 24 percent of the world's oil reserves threats). With nearly unlimited monetary resources resulting from the soaring price of oil, the Kingdom created a complex maze of 24 redundant HLS-HLD organizations numbering more than 250,000 people. Actively spending its resources on state-of-the-art technologies and services, Saudi Arabia is creating globally unparalleled business opportunities, some of which include: Saudi-Iraqi border fence & Saudi-Yemen border Fence:Description: Hundreds of miles of border & perimeter protection technologies.Opportunities: Computer-controlled surveillance equipment, electronic gates, thermal imaging equipment, advanced communication systems, electronic detection equipment, cameras.Oil industryDescription: Additional 35 000 people, doubling airport and maritime security personel over 2008-2018 period.Opportunities: IT, perimeter protection equipment & personnel, hazmat decontamination, risk assesment, maritime security.Private sectorDescription: Banking & Financial, Utilities, Infrastructure, Transport.Opportunities: Perimeter control, emergency planning, VIP protection, access control, biometrics.This landmark report represents several researcher years, dozens of interviews, and in-depth analysis of thousands of documents; the resulting produce is a comprehensive roadmap of this huge and intriguing Homeland Security market. Some highlights include:- Detailed deciphering of the complex multi-tier, inter-dependent, Saudi organizations, employing over 250,000 people, and devoted exclusively to HLS - making major procurement decisions.- 18 HLS sub-segment market forecasts and analysis (e.g. Aviation Security, Counter-terror Intel, Maritime, Saudi Oil & Gas security, Ministry of Interior, Private Sector security, IT).- Dozens of Saudi Arabian market business opportunities segmented by HLS industry (e.g. Intel, Cyber-security, Permeter Protection).
Source: www.securityworldhotel.com
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Control room design overview
The main task of a control room is to make data and information available to distribute them and to control them and to react fast on failures, events or emergency cases. This can be achieved with a central visualisation unit in, general a video wall. For the design and planning of a control room a lot of factors have to be considered, like ergonomics, technology, reliability etc..
A lot of factors are important here we would like to point out the most important ones:
-all equipments have to have 24/7 ability, not only all electronic components, but also
for example the operator chairs.
-appropriate and functional furniture
-air conditioning
-dust-free environment
-reduction of heat and noise
à move equipment like operator PCs and video wall controller to separate server room
-proper environmental conditions, this will extend the product life and reducing failure rates especially
for technical equipment
-assure service accessibility
-assure that all equipment can pass doors and corners for installation
-infrastructure
à keep additional spare cables available in the computer floor, this will save time, because
exchanging broken ones will need time
à keep a minimum of spares on site to reduce downtimes and being able to react quickly
à knowledge about the systems, keep documentation reachable
-training of the operators for all the equipment inside control room
-use of digital connections in order to not loose image quality
-secured access to control room and to equipment to prevent incidents and mal-operation
-keep right viewing distances not too far and not to close
-keep appropriate height of consoles and operator workstation monitors
à ergonomics, ability to view of video wall
-height of video wall and height of base structure of video wall
-air quality, air quantity and air temperature control à fatigue of operators
-ideal temperature (ergonomically) 21 – 22 ° C
-ideal humidity (ergonomically) 45-65 %
-ideal air movement < 10 - 15 cm/sec.
-suitable lighting conditions
à no direct light on displays (artificial or sun light), low level of lighting = good for image monitoring,
bad for paper works
à individually adjustable lighting (not every operator has same requirements for his tasks)
-ceiling material reflection max. 30,8
à correct light distribution
à minimizing costs of lighting (power saving)
-walls à matte, flat finish with a reflectance of 0,5 – 0,6
-floors
à 0,2 – 0,3 reflectance (carpet)
à 0,25 – 0,45 reflectance (floor tiles)
-operators like to work in an environment with windows, but this has the following risks
à security risks
à potential of reflection
à distraction of operators
à heat of sunlight
-right location doors and windows
-north facing windows
-creation of a separate recreation room
-creation of a separate meeting or crisis room
-operator workplaces
àaisle space
àrow width
-correct colors of interior design à area of conflict with corporate design and ergonomics
-scope of work, methodology to follow, profile of task force
-choosing the right content and the appropriate number of source on the video wall
Analysis:
-ensure operator perception
-ensure rational environment, facilitate work and processes
-enabling to carry out tasks logically and in an appropriate manner
-ensure that technical infrastructure and required equipment is given
Planning:
-initial layout sketches and design offer
-proposal of adaption and design
-design of video wall equipment
-design of video wall covering
-design of meeting or crisis room
-design of flooring/ceiling/wall covering
-design of lighting
-console arrangement
-design of interior decoration incl. decorative elements
-design according CD/CI
Viewing distances to video wall:
Min. 2 m max. 8 m
Video: 6x display height
Fonts: 4x display height
Calculation of display height and width:
-4:3 height = 0,6 x diagonal, width = 0,8 x diagonal
-16:9 height = 0,49 x diagonal, width = 0,87 x diagonal
A lot of factors are important here we would like to point out the most important ones:
-all equipments have to have 24/7 ability, not only all electronic components, but also
for example the operator chairs.
-appropriate and functional furniture
-air conditioning
-dust-free environment
-reduction of heat and noise
à move equipment like operator PCs and video wall controller to separate server room
-proper environmental conditions, this will extend the product life and reducing failure rates especially
for technical equipment
-assure service accessibility
-assure that all equipment can pass doors and corners for installation
-infrastructure
à keep additional spare cables available in the computer floor, this will save time, because
exchanging broken ones will need time
à keep a minimum of spares on site to reduce downtimes and being able to react quickly
à knowledge about the systems, keep documentation reachable
-training of the operators for all the equipment inside control room
-use of digital connections in order to not loose image quality
-secured access to control room and to equipment to prevent incidents and mal-operation
-keep right viewing distances not too far and not to close
-keep appropriate height of consoles and operator workstation monitors
à ergonomics, ability to view of video wall
-height of video wall and height of base structure of video wall
-air quality, air quantity and air temperature control à fatigue of operators
-ideal temperature (ergonomically) 21 – 22 ° C
-ideal humidity (ergonomically) 45-65 %
-ideal air movement < 10 - 15 cm/sec.
-suitable lighting conditions
à no direct light on displays (artificial or sun light), low level of lighting = good for image monitoring,
bad for paper works
à individually adjustable lighting (not every operator has same requirements for his tasks)
-ceiling material reflection max. 30,8
à correct light distribution
à minimizing costs of lighting (power saving)
-walls à matte, flat finish with a reflectance of 0,5 – 0,6
-floors
à 0,2 – 0,3 reflectance (carpet)
à 0,25 – 0,45 reflectance (floor tiles)
-operators like to work in an environment with windows, but this has the following risks
à security risks
à potential of reflection
à distraction of operators
à heat of sunlight
-right location doors and windows
-north facing windows
-creation of a separate recreation room
-creation of a separate meeting or crisis room
-operator workplaces
àaisle space
àrow width
-correct colors of interior design à area of conflict with corporate design and ergonomics
-scope of work, methodology to follow, profile of task force
-choosing the right content and the appropriate number of source on the video wall
Analysis:
-ensure operator perception
-ensure rational environment, facilitate work and processes
-enabling to carry out tasks logically and in an appropriate manner
-ensure that technical infrastructure and required equipment is given
Planning:
-initial layout sketches and design offer
-proposal of adaption and design
-design of video wall equipment
-design of video wall covering
-design of meeting or crisis room
-design of flooring/ceiling/wall covering
-design of lighting
-console arrangement
-design of interior decoration incl. decorative elements
-design according CD/CI
Viewing distances to video wall:
Min. 2 m max. 8 m
Video: 6x display height
Fonts: 4x display height
Calculation of display height and width:
-4:3 height = 0,6 x diagonal, width = 0,8 x diagonal
-16:9 height = 0,49 x diagonal, width = 0,87 x diagonal
Monday, July 7, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
New Control Room Handbook soon available
Handbook of Control Room Design and Ergonomics: A Perspective for the Future, Second Edition (Hardcover) by Toni Ivergard (Editor), Brian Hunt (Editor)
Book DescriptionFully revised and updated, the new edition of the Handbook of Control Room Design and Ergonomics takes into account the latest human factor considerations for the design and operation of modern control rooms. Containing many pictures that illustrate best practices, this resource provides designers with an accessible approach to the development of control and operations rooms in the process, manufacturing, and logistics industries. With more than 20 new chapters and sub-chapters, this second edition adds extensive theoretical background and explores new philosophies relating to organizational and job design. It also discusses use of the control room in education and simulation training.
· Hardcover: 456 pages
· Publisher: CRC; 2 edition (Sep 19 2008)
· Language: English
· ISBN-10: 1420064290
· ISBN-13: 978-1420064292
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Control-Room-Design-Ergonomics/dp/1420064290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213264328&sr=8-1
Book DescriptionFully revised and updated, the new edition of the Handbook of Control Room Design and Ergonomics takes into account the latest human factor considerations for the design and operation of modern control rooms. Containing many pictures that illustrate best practices, this resource provides designers with an accessible approach to the development of control and operations rooms in the process, manufacturing, and logistics industries. With more than 20 new chapters and sub-chapters, this second edition adds extensive theoretical background and explores new philosophies relating to organizational and job design. It also discusses use of the control room in education and simulation training.
· Hardcover: 456 pages
· Publisher: CRC; 2 edition (Sep 19 2008)
· Language: English
· ISBN-10: 1420064290
· ISBN-13: 978-1420064292
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Control-Room-Design-Ergonomics/dp/1420064290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213264328&sr=8-1
Monday, June 2, 2008
Data Centers
Knowledge & networking for people who design. build and operate dat center facilities:
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com
Friday, May 16, 2008
Sunday, May 11, 2008
What is a video- or monitor wall?
What is a video or monitor wall in control rooms?
A video- or monitor wall consists of a matrix of displays, which are built up to one large display wall. These displays are in general DLP rear-projection cubes, available from 50”-100” in XGA, SXGA, SXGA+ or HD resolution. One of the main advantages of these displays that they don’t suffer of burn-in or image retention when displaying static pictures.
State-of-the-art DLP cbes have features like automatic brightness and colour correction, automatic double lamp systems.
Another type of display available for video walls are Plasma displays, but these are rarely used in control rooms, because of the burn-in of static pictures and because of the big gap between the individual displays. The third technology used in control rooms are LCD TFT monitors. As standard large format LCD monitors have a big bezel, nowadays professional systems for 24/7 are available with narrow bezels. The disadvantage of this technology is the memory effect (also called image retention) when displaying static pictures over a long period. There are several ways that this phenomenon can be avoided professional manufacturers have features and ways how to do that. Standard LCD monitors are not designed for control rooms, but professional control room equipment manufacturers have designed systems with optimizing features for 24/7 operation.
Display possibilities on large screen systems:
-SCADA and DCS systems
-maps, grids, networks (e.g. power grids, pipelines,
roads, rail network…)
-video sources (CCTV cameras, IP cameras, DVD, VCR….)
-servers or workstations
-production processes
-presentations
-timetables
-surveillance systems
-alarms
-flow diagrams
-status messages
-….
DLP cubes
Operation time of these systems are > 100.000 h. Experienced manufacturers offer minimum 10 years spare parts availability. The only real disadvantage of these systems is that they require more space than flat panel displays, but in terms of operation and maintenance costs, as well as for 24/7 ability these systems are the most used in control rooms nowadays.
A cube in general consists of a cube chassis (metal housing), a two element optical effective front screen, a 45° mirror, a projection engine, a input box and a back panel.
The front screen:
Double element optical effective screens. Professional systems have these screens pre-mounted on a screen frame which can be easily mounted on the cube chassis.
The cube chassis:
Some manufacturers deliver the chassis as kit to be mounted on site. The disadvantages are, that more time is required for the installation, as well as these systems are mechanically not so stable. Specialized manufacturers deliver the cube chassis pre-mounted and these are very stable and robust (possibility to install and dismount the systems several times). Also the engines and the 45° mirrors should be pre-mounted.
The engine:
This is the hart of each rear-projection cube in general with DLP technology from Texas Instruments. The engine consists of an optical unit, formatter board and other electronic boards, power supplies, fans, autom. Brightness and colour sensor, DLP chip, colour wheel and lamp units. Attached to the engine you will find the input box with lamp drivers, power supplies, fans, input boards and scaler board.
In general such a rear-projection cube comes with one DVI and RS-232 input. Optional inputs should be available and could be additional DVI or RGB inputs, video inputs, LAN input, optical fibre input.
The scaler board is in general required, when no external controller is used and one signal should be displayed over several cubes.
The basement:
The lower row of a cube wall consist of a matrix of rear-projection cubes, which need to be mount on a basement. In general this is of solid steel. The height has to be defined when ordering such systems. The basement should also have adjustable feet. The height depends strongly on height of consoles, workstation monitors, operator positions etc. Optionally also rail systems or shock absorbing basements should be available.
Height of basement
Please take care that the upper edge of monitors on the operator desks are quite low. The standard height of a basement of a videowall is 100 - 120 cm. This strongly depends from the ceiling height. So for the height of a basement of a videowall, you should take into consideration the ceiling height, height of operator desks, height of monitors on operator desks.
Viewing distances to a videowall
Good readability of fonts = max. 250 cmLimited readability of fonts = 450 - 500 cmNo readability of fonts, but graphics and diagrams could be seen = 650 - 700 cm
Space requirements:
Large screen walls consisting of DLP cubes, need normally minimum 50 cm in the back of the displays for service and maintenance. Otherwise rail-systems or front-access system have to be used.
Front access difficulty:
Large screen systems that have a backward accessibility for service and maintenance have fixed screens and therefore a maximal gap of 0.68-0.8 mm between the individual modules (this gap is necessary to allow for temperature-caused variations of the materials).
Front maintenance requires movable screens. This movability of the screens is only
possible with wider gaps between the cubes. The width of the gap between two
front-maintenance cubes is up to 2 mm, so we cannot talk of a “seamless” video wall
anymore. In general, large screen systems have the following characteristical attributes:
∙ Mullion: 0.3 mm per screen, this leads to a gap between two adjacent screens of
about 0.68 mm.
∙ The distance from pixel to pixel can be up to 1 mm with conventional back maintenance-access.
∙ This gap can be up to 2 mm with front-maintenance cubes (pixel to pixel).
Mechanical Reliability (Limitations):
Since the screen frame has to be moved for service and maintenance works, it must
be granted that its construction and installation is done is very stable and accurate.
Repeated opening and closing of a low-quality construction will lead to misadjustments of the screens which will result in a loss of sharpness for the entire video wall. Already variations in distance of only a few decimillimetres can affect the sharpness of the entire system.
Maintenance (Exceptions with front-maintenance access):
The service staff has to stand in front of the video wall to do their work. This means
they have to stand right in view of the people who are watching the video wall, so the
operation of the entire wall is disturbed for a while. Video walls with back-access for
service works can be repaired while the wall is in normal operation except for the cube that gets repaired.
Disadvantages front access:
- Wider gap between the cubes, up to 2 mm instead of 0.68 mm with conventional cubes.
- Difficult to service in operation, service staff disturbs the view on the video wall.
- Danger of damages and scratches that may happen to the screens of larger video walls, if
the screens are not handled with adequate care.
- Servicing larger walls may require the use a scaffolding or an elevating platform, which leads to higher costs.
LCD monitors
Operation time 50.000 h
Nowadays this upcoming technology is also used more and more in control rooms. Professional systems manufacturers offer LCD systems optimized for 24/7 operation with narrow bezels from 40”-46” in 1366x768 pixels and 52” 1920x1080 pixels.
These displays consist of a LCD panel, mechanical frame, electronics, fans and inputs and scaler boards.
These systems can be either wall-mounted or mounted on a display rack with feet.
Display possibilities
The display possibilities with cubes or LCD screens are in principle similar.
Monitor imaging
There the source (e.g. a PC) is connected directly to the displays. Than the large screen display is used as a stupid large monitor.
Using internal scaler
Here the signal is connected to one display (all other displays in the videowall are connected via loop-through) via the internal scaler the signal is distributed to all the displays that the image appears as one big image over the complete video wall. With sophisticated solutions you will additionally be able to make a PictureInPicture (PIP), means you insert an additional image on the displays.
External graphics controller
Modern control room systems use external graphics controller in order being more flexible in the number of sources and the management of the system. With such a controller a lot of different sources can be connected and displayed at the same time on the large screen wall:
-DVI or RGB
-analog video or IP video
-Applications running directly on the controller
-LAN capture sources
Professional solutions display all these sources in real-time.
All these sources normally should be freely positionable and scalable on the large screen wall. Professional systems also have a so-called wallmanagement software available, with this all connected displays, processes and sources can be managed easily and events can be launched on the wall etc..
This controller should in general be located in a separate server room, in that case please be careful with the cable length, if distance is longer than 7 m optical fibre cables has to be used as connection between cubes/LCDs and controller.
Installation conditions of a large screen system
The installation site must be dust free. All dust generating works must be finished.
The height of the basements (height image bottom) must be defined with the order, at latest 4 weeks before delivery.
If the videowall shall be installed in a curved arrangement, this must be clarified with the order or at latest 4 weeks before delivery. Power cables, network cables and all source cables must be finished, be accessible and pluggable at the position of the large screen.
All cable ways must be known and be accessible.
At the end of the installation, the passing of risk is made in written form, to transfer the responsibilities of any occuring later damage of the system. The acceptance through the customer together with all technical details related to the large screen system and the site must be clear and discussed at the latest 4 weeks before the installation. Also it must be clarified how many engineers you need from eyevis and if some staff is available on site.
Operation
General Operating Conditions
Storing: 0 – 50 °C, up to 3500m over NN
Operation: 18 - 25 °C recommended, 0-3000m over NN
Humidity 20 - 80% not condensed
Please check necessity of an air condition !
Sizes
Distance LVS rear side to site wall:
· min. 50 cm at not movable installations for cubes
min. 5 cm with LCD screens
· min. 10cm at movable installations (rail system/front access) for cubes, on request for LCD
screens.
Distance LVS upper side to site min. 10cm
Divers
This specification is part of the order acknowledgement for the below mentioned project. These specifications have to be fulfilled before the installation can be made.
For a perfect installation and setup of a large screen system certain points have to be fulfilled.
All construction works at the installation site have to be completed before the
installation of the video wall.
The site, where the video wall will be located must have a climate controlled environment. The required dust class must be 100000 or better (100000 particles of 0.5 μm or larger per cubic feet).
Dimensions of doors at site must have appropriate size.
If the system must be transported more than one floor without elevator, the customer has to provide two people helping to transport the equipment.
Providing lifts, risers or other special equipment is not part of our standard deliveries. Prices can be obtained from the Eyevis sales department.
Adaption of applications and integration of customer’s systems is not part of Eyevis installation work, if not agreed in written form with the PO for the system/installation.
Cable moving, connection of power cables, external cabling for the transmission of video, RGB/DVI or other signals as well as network cables is not part of the Eyevis installation work, if not agreed in written form with the PO.
The site must have sufficient service are behind the video wall, if no frontal maintenance or rail-system is part of this equipment.
The installation surface must have a sufficient level and sufficient load bearing capacity and should not bend or sag under the load of an Eyevis system by more than 1 mm. The possible floor surface should be concrete, wood and false floors or platforms. The floor surface must provide enough resistance in lateral movements that in light shaking movements the system will not move.
If panelling or covers around the video wall is wished, it should be installed after the complete installation of the video wall. It is not permitted that the covering touches the screens, so sufficient space between screens and cover must be respected (or foam, soft rubbers or bristles have to be used).
Grounding must be available at installation site.
When the installation will be made after the equipment is already delivered, the equipment has to be stored in appropriate conditions (dust-free, temperature- and humidity conditions).0-50° C, max. 60% rel. humidity
Please note that it could be possible that screens have a bow during and just after finishing the installation. Screens need at least 2-3 weeks on site until to acclimate to the changed humidity and temperature conditions (for cubes only).
If temperature and/or humidity conditions vary from the Eyevis recommendations, the
Project manager has to be contacted about that. He will decide if the system can be
installed with these conditions.
Transportation/storing/unpacking
Use of proper transportation ways and professional transportation companies.
Store the equipment in adequate storing areas and under adequate storing conditions.
Let the systems be unpacked only by experienced or appointed staff. Others might not be aware how to take care of it.
Always respect the instructions given on the packaging of the goods, never transport the goods in other positions than stated on the packaging.
There is no warranty for improper handling of the systems!
Screen handling (only cubes)
Always use the dimple gloves supplied when handling the screens.
Don’t lay the screens on critical surfaces (hot, dusty, dirty, ..).
Don’t scratch the screens with anything.
Handle screens with greatest care, as they are extremely fragile especially the 84” and 100” screens.
Memory effect/image retention (only for LCD monitors)
Please read carefully the instructions about the memory effect or image
retention. Instructions on request.
Memory effect or image retention is not under warranty.
Maintenance
For both systems, video walls consisting of a matrix of DLP cubes or LCD screens together with a graphics controller and a wallmanagement software, the most common maintenance action is cleaning the systems from dust and make some necessary re-adjustments. For DLP cubes another service action is to change a broken lamps, but as for most systems this is quite an easy task, it can be done by the operators.
Operation costs
DLP Cubes
In principle within the cubes you have to replace from time to time lamps (MTBF of around 10.000 h). After a certain time e.g. 35.000 h, it might be necessary to change the colour wheels of the system. The power consumption of these display units is very low.
LCD monitors
This is a quite young technology, in principle the LCD panels have a MTBF of 50.000 h, so it might be possible to exchange them when reaching this time, may be before if they have an image retention or memory effect. This task can’t be done by the operators, it has to be done by experienced service personnel in the factory. The power consumption of LCD screens is higher than with DLP cubes.
Which solution to choose?
In principle this strongly depends on the application, location and duration of use:
-available budget
-available space
-duration of displaying
-number of operators
-number and type of sources
-quality and resolution of sources
-displaying fonts, video or graphics
-viewing distance
-accessibility of site (big displays might not pass existing doors or aisles)
-environmental conditions (dust, humidity, temperature)
-lighting conditions (artificial and sun light)
-floors (computer or concrete floors
-wall constructions (if LCD monitors shall be hanged up)
-curved or plane arrangement of monitors/displays
-distance controller to displays
-expandability for future upgrades
-level of redundancy
-….
Which are the requirements?
-no direct light or sun one the displays
-not too long cable ways for copper cables, otherwise optical fibre has to be used
-stable temperature and humidity conditions
-as less dust as possible (otherwise special housings have to be used)
-no vibrations (otherwise special antivibration systems have to be used)
-good quality of sources (the best display can only be as good as the sources to
be displayed)
-quality of components
-trained operators, for operation and maintenance (e.g. lamp change)
As such a display wall is always only a part of the control room, there should be a good collaboration with the different parties like control room designer, console manufacturer and integrator in order to deliver a good solution.
A video- or monitor wall consists of a matrix of displays, which are built up to one large display wall. These displays are in general DLP rear-projection cubes, available from 50”-100” in XGA, SXGA, SXGA+ or HD resolution. One of the main advantages of these displays that they don’t suffer of burn-in or image retention when displaying static pictures.
State-of-the-art DLP cbes have features like automatic brightness and colour correction, automatic double lamp systems.
Another type of display available for video walls are Plasma displays, but these are rarely used in control rooms, because of the burn-in of static pictures and because of the big gap between the individual displays. The third technology used in control rooms are LCD TFT monitors. As standard large format LCD monitors have a big bezel, nowadays professional systems for 24/7 are available with narrow bezels. The disadvantage of this technology is the memory effect (also called image retention) when displaying static pictures over a long period. There are several ways that this phenomenon can be avoided professional manufacturers have features and ways how to do that. Standard LCD monitors are not designed for control rooms, but professional control room equipment manufacturers have designed systems with optimizing features for 24/7 operation.
Display possibilities on large screen systems:
-SCADA and DCS systems
-maps, grids, networks (e.g. power grids, pipelines,
roads, rail network…)
-video sources (CCTV cameras, IP cameras, DVD, VCR….)
-servers or workstations
-production processes
-presentations
-timetables
-surveillance systems
-alarms
-flow diagrams
-status messages
-….
DLP cubes
Operation time of these systems are > 100.000 h. Experienced manufacturers offer minimum 10 years spare parts availability. The only real disadvantage of these systems is that they require more space than flat panel displays, but in terms of operation and maintenance costs, as well as for 24/7 ability these systems are the most used in control rooms nowadays.
A cube in general consists of a cube chassis (metal housing), a two element optical effective front screen, a 45° mirror, a projection engine, a input box and a back panel.
The front screen:
Double element optical effective screens. Professional systems have these screens pre-mounted on a screen frame which can be easily mounted on the cube chassis.
The cube chassis:
Some manufacturers deliver the chassis as kit to be mounted on site. The disadvantages are, that more time is required for the installation, as well as these systems are mechanically not so stable. Specialized manufacturers deliver the cube chassis pre-mounted and these are very stable and robust (possibility to install and dismount the systems several times). Also the engines and the 45° mirrors should be pre-mounted.
The engine:
This is the hart of each rear-projection cube in general with DLP technology from Texas Instruments. The engine consists of an optical unit, formatter board and other electronic boards, power supplies, fans, autom. Brightness and colour sensor, DLP chip, colour wheel and lamp units. Attached to the engine you will find the input box with lamp drivers, power supplies, fans, input boards and scaler board.
In general such a rear-projection cube comes with one DVI and RS-232 input. Optional inputs should be available and could be additional DVI or RGB inputs, video inputs, LAN input, optical fibre input.
The scaler board is in general required, when no external controller is used and one signal should be displayed over several cubes.
The basement:
The lower row of a cube wall consist of a matrix of rear-projection cubes, which need to be mount on a basement. In general this is of solid steel. The height has to be defined when ordering such systems. The basement should also have adjustable feet. The height depends strongly on height of consoles, workstation monitors, operator positions etc. Optionally also rail systems or shock absorbing basements should be available.
Height of basement
Please take care that the upper edge of monitors on the operator desks are quite low. The standard height of a basement of a videowall is 100 - 120 cm. This strongly depends from the ceiling height. So for the height of a basement of a videowall, you should take into consideration the ceiling height, height of operator desks, height of monitors on operator desks.
Viewing distances to a videowall
Good readability of fonts = max. 250 cmLimited readability of fonts = 450 - 500 cmNo readability of fonts, but graphics and diagrams could be seen = 650 - 700 cm
Space requirements:
Large screen walls consisting of DLP cubes, need normally minimum 50 cm in the back of the displays for service and maintenance. Otherwise rail-systems or front-access system have to be used.
Front access difficulty:
Large screen systems that have a backward accessibility for service and maintenance have fixed screens and therefore a maximal gap of 0.68-0.8 mm between the individual modules (this gap is necessary to allow for temperature-caused variations of the materials).
Front maintenance requires movable screens. This movability of the screens is only
possible with wider gaps between the cubes. The width of the gap between two
front-maintenance cubes is up to 2 mm, so we cannot talk of a “seamless” video wall
anymore. In general, large screen systems have the following characteristical attributes:
∙ Mullion: 0.3 mm per screen, this leads to a gap between two adjacent screens of
about 0.68 mm.
∙ The distance from pixel to pixel can be up to 1 mm with conventional back maintenance-access.
∙ This gap can be up to 2 mm with front-maintenance cubes (pixel to pixel).
Mechanical Reliability (Limitations):
Since the screen frame has to be moved for service and maintenance works, it must
be granted that its construction and installation is done is very stable and accurate.
Repeated opening and closing of a low-quality construction will lead to misadjustments of the screens which will result in a loss of sharpness for the entire video wall. Already variations in distance of only a few decimillimetres can affect the sharpness of the entire system.
Maintenance (Exceptions with front-maintenance access):
The service staff has to stand in front of the video wall to do their work. This means
they have to stand right in view of the people who are watching the video wall, so the
operation of the entire wall is disturbed for a while. Video walls with back-access for
service works can be repaired while the wall is in normal operation except for the cube that gets repaired.
Disadvantages front access:
- Wider gap between the cubes, up to 2 mm instead of 0.68 mm with conventional cubes.
- Difficult to service in operation, service staff disturbs the view on the video wall.
- Danger of damages and scratches that may happen to the screens of larger video walls, if
the screens are not handled with adequate care.
- Servicing larger walls may require the use a scaffolding or an elevating platform, which leads to higher costs.
LCD monitors
Operation time 50.000 h
Nowadays this upcoming technology is also used more and more in control rooms. Professional systems manufacturers offer LCD systems optimized for 24/7 operation with narrow bezels from 40”-46” in 1366x768 pixels and 52” 1920x1080 pixels.
These displays consist of a LCD panel, mechanical frame, electronics, fans and inputs and scaler boards.
These systems can be either wall-mounted or mounted on a display rack with feet.
Display possibilities
The display possibilities with cubes or LCD screens are in principle similar.
Monitor imaging
There the source (e.g. a PC) is connected directly to the displays. Than the large screen display is used as a stupid large monitor.
Using internal scaler
Here the signal is connected to one display (all other displays in the videowall are connected via loop-through) via the internal scaler the signal is distributed to all the displays that the image appears as one big image over the complete video wall. With sophisticated solutions you will additionally be able to make a PictureInPicture (PIP), means you insert an additional image on the displays.
External graphics controller
Modern control room systems use external graphics controller in order being more flexible in the number of sources and the management of the system. With such a controller a lot of different sources can be connected and displayed at the same time on the large screen wall:
-DVI or RGB
-analog video or IP video
-Applications running directly on the controller
-LAN capture sources
Professional solutions display all these sources in real-time.
All these sources normally should be freely positionable and scalable on the large screen wall. Professional systems also have a so-called wallmanagement software available, with this all connected displays, processes and sources can be managed easily and events can be launched on the wall etc..
This controller should in general be located in a separate server room, in that case please be careful with the cable length, if distance is longer than 7 m optical fibre cables has to be used as connection between cubes/LCDs and controller.
Installation conditions of a large screen system
The installation site must be dust free. All dust generating works must be finished.
The height of the basements (height image bottom) must be defined with the order, at latest 4 weeks before delivery.
If the videowall shall be installed in a curved arrangement, this must be clarified with the order or at latest 4 weeks before delivery. Power cables, network cables and all source cables must be finished, be accessible and pluggable at the position of the large screen.
All cable ways must be known and be accessible.
At the end of the installation, the passing of risk is made in written form, to transfer the responsibilities of any occuring later damage of the system. The acceptance through the customer together with all technical details related to the large screen system and the site must be clear and discussed at the latest 4 weeks before the installation. Also it must be clarified how many engineers you need from eyevis and if some staff is available on site.
Operation
General Operating Conditions
Storing: 0 – 50 °C, up to 3500m over NN
Operation: 18 - 25 °C recommended, 0-3000m over NN
Humidity 20 - 80% not condensed
Please check necessity of an air condition !
Sizes
Distance LVS rear side to site wall:
· min. 50 cm at not movable installations for cubes
min. 5 cm with LCD screens
· min. 10cm at movable installations (rail system/front access) for cubes, on request for LCD
screens.
Distance LVS upper side to site min. 10cm
Divers
This specification is part of the order acknowledgement for the below mentioned project. These specifications have to be fulfilled before the installation can be made.
For a perfect installation and setup of a large screen system certain points have to be fulfilled.
All construction works at the installation site have to be completed before the
installation of the video wall.
The site, where the video wall will be located must have a climate controlled environment. The required dust class must be 100000 or better (100000 particles of 0.5 μm or larger per cubic feet).
Dimensions of doors at site must have appropriate size.
If the system must be transported more than one floor without elevator, the customer has to provide two people helping to transport the equipment.
Providing lifts, risers or other special equipment is not part of our standard deliveries. Prices can be obtained from the Eyevis sales department.
Adaption of applications and integration of customer’s systems is not part of Eyevis installation work, if not agreed in written form with the PO for the system/installation.
Cable moving, connection of power cables, external cabling for the transmission of video, RGB/DVI or other signals as well as network cables is not part of the Eyevis installation work, if not agreed in written form with the PO.
The site must have sufficient service are behind the video wall, if no frontal maintenance or rail-system is part of this equipment.
The installation surface must have a sufficient level and sufficient load bearing capacity and should not bend or sag under the load of an Eyevis system by more than 1 mm. The possible floor surface should be concrete, wood and false floors or platforms. The floor surface must provide enough resistance in lateral movements that in light shaking movements the system will not move.
If panelling or covers around the video wall is wished, it should be installed after the complete installation of the video wall. It is not permitted that the covering touches the screens, so sufficient space between screens and cover must be respected (or foam, soft rubbers or bristles have to be used).
Grounding must be available at installation site.
When the installation will be made after the equipment is already delivered, the equipment has to be stored in appropriate conditions (dust-free, temperature- and humidity conditions).0-50° C, max. 60% rel. humidity
Please note that it could be possible that screens have a bow during and just after finishing the installation. Screens need at least 2-3 weeks on site until to acclimate to the changed humidity and temperature conditions (for cubes only).
If temperature and/or humidity conditions vary from the Eyevis recommendations, the
Project manager has to be contacted about that. He will decide if the system can be
installed with these conditions.
Transportation/storing/unpacking
Use of proper transportation ways and professional transportation companies.
Store the equipment in adequate storing areas and under adequate storing conditions.
Let the systems be unpacked only by experienced or appointed staff. Others might not be aware how to take care of it.
Always respect the instructions given on the packaging of the goods, never transport the goods in other positions than stated on the packaging.
There is no warranty for improper handling of the systems!
Screen handling (only cubes)
Always use the dimple gloves supplied when handling the screens.
Don’t lay the screens on critical surfaces (hot, dusty, dirty, ..).
Don’t scratch the screens with anything.
Handle screens with greatest care, as they are extremely fragile especially the 84” and 100” screens.
Memory effect/image retention (only for LCD monitors)
Please read carefully the instructions about the memory effect or image
retention. Instructions on request.
Memory effect or image retention is not under warranty.
Maintenance
For both systems, video walls consisting of a matrix of DLP cubes or LCD screens together with a graphics controller and a wallmanagement software, the most common maintenance action is cleaning the systems from dust and make some necessary re-adjustments. For DLP cubes another service action is to change a broken lamps, but as for most systems this is quite an easy task, it can be done by the operators.
Operation costs
DLP Cubes
In principle within the cubes you have to replace from time to time lamps (MTBF of around 10.000 h). After a certain time e.g. 35.000 h, it might be necessary to change the colour wheels of the system. The power consumption of these display units is very low.
LCD monitors
This is a quite young technology, in principle the LCD panels have a MTBF of 50.000 h, so it might be possible to exchange them when reaching this time, may be before if they have an image retention or memory effect. This task can’t be done by the operators, it has to be done by experienced service personnel in the factory. The power consumption of LCD screens is higher than with DLP cubes.
Which solution to choose?
In principle this strongly depends on the application, location and duration of use:
-available budget
-available space
-duration of displaying
-number of operators
-number and type of sources
-quality and resolution of sources
-displaying fonts, video or graphics
-viewing distance
-accessibility of site (big displays might not pass existing doors or aisles)
-environmental conditions (dust, humidity, temperature)
-lighting conditions (artificial and sun light)
-floors (computer or concrete floors
-wall constructions (if LCD monitors shall be hanged up)
-curved or plane arrangement of monitors/displays
-distance controller to displays
-expandability for future upgrades
-level of redundancy
-….
Which are the requirements?
-no direct light or sun one the displays
-not too long cable ways for copper cables, otherwise optical fibre has to be used
-stable temperature and humidity conditions
-as less dust as possible (otherwise special housings have to be used)
-no vibrations (otherwise special antivibration systems have to be used)
-good quality of sources (the best display can only be as good as the sources to
be displayed)
-quality of components
-trained operators, for operation and maintenance (e.g. lamp change)
As such a display wall is always only a part of the control room, there should be a good collaboration with the different parties like control room designer, console manufacturer and integrator in order to deliver a good solution.
Large Scale Display Systems for Traffic Management and Surveillance
Large Scale Display Systems for Traffic Management and Surveillance
The growing volume of traffic and transportation, not only in industrialised countries but also in developing economies, has led to an increasing requirement for traffic management and surveillance. More traffic on roads, highways and railways require more tunnels, more bridges, more junctions, or in other words: places were accidents are more likely to happen. In order to cope with the problems and dangers rising with this development, new traffic control rooms have been installed all around the world. Traffic surveillance itself has shifted from the mere watching of camera signals on CRT monitor walls towards the interactive display of various signal types on large video walls in modern control rooms. These large scale video wall systems are the core of today’s traffic control rooms. Software developers have produced many useful tools, such as automatic licence plate recognition, traffic flow measurement, and other telematics related tools. But there is hardly any sense in deploying all these, if you cannot display their information to all operators in the control room.
State-of-the-art display technology for control rooms
Times when large screen systems were just CRT monitors stacked on top of each other are definitely over. The question which display technology to choose depends on several decisive criteria. Reliability of the system in long-term operation is a “conditio sine qua non” for display solutions in control rooms. Other factors that have to be considered are the best possible image quality, ergonomic viewing, economic costs and the type and number of the connected signal sources. Technologies that do not create gaps which disturb the displayed image are therefore preferred. Normal projectors are not suitable for control room applications since the quality of the projected image strongly depends on the lighting conditions. So called “seamless” Plasma monitors are likely to suffer from burn-in effects and ghost-images with static image content. Most modern control room applications rely on DLP™-technology based rear-projection units, so called “cubes”, for their video walls. This technology has many advantages which makes it the best solution available at the moment. The cubes are available in many different sizes and resolutions. They can be stacked to build up video walls of almost any size. Thanks to their way of construction there are almost no gaps between adjacent cubes. This allows scaling and positioning of windows independently from the borders of the individual units of a wall.
Their main disadvantage is the depth of the cubes and an additional required space behind the video wall which has to remain for maintenance. Some manufacturers have solved this problem with front-maintenance options.
Liquid crystal-based video walls were rarely used for large screen systems in the past because of the wide gaps in-between the individual displays of a “tiled” video wall. When putting common LC displays together the resulting gap measured up to ten centimetres. Now providers of control room display solutions have developed professional LC displays which offer the outstanding image characteristics of the technology and at the same time create only minimal gaps in a combined large screen. Thanks to their advantages concerning space requirement, costs and display quality they have become a considerable alternative to DLP™-cubes. Whether you choose rear-projection, which is still the leading technology for control rooms, or LC displays for a control room depends on the money available and the size of the room, which also determines the viewing distances and angles for the operators.
Diversity of Signals
Today’s traffic management centres have to handle many different signal types from a multitude of sources: analogue and digital video camera signals, traffic management software applications, incoming alarms from emergency services, and many more. Most sources in traffic control room are definitely video signals from surveillance cameras. These signals can be transmitted as RGB, DVI or as streaming video signals via IP networks. The inputs for the large screen systems are usually provided by the corresponding graphics controller. Besides the connectivity, the device creates the coherent desktop surface on the large screen elements. These graphics controllers use high-end processors and graphic chips to handle the huge data masses created through the video signals. The controllers, as well as further server units should be placed in separate server rooms, since the necessary ventilation may create annoying noise emissions.
Video streams using IP networks have been a challenge for large screen systems in the past, because there are often different camera types, different encoders, and different stream formats in use, all of which have to be integrated to the system. But using IP networks for transmission of camera signal is a practical and cost-efficient method, so industry reacted and today there are input boards available for graphic controllers which can handle these various streams.
All of these sources named above have to be connected to the large screen system. They have to be displayed, either constantly or on demand, and they have to be controllable.
Modern large screen systems provide very helpful software tools to operate the entire system. Incoming alarm signals or alarm messages from other software applications are automatically displayed in a predefined position and size on the video wall. Even certain automated reactions can be part of these presets. These possibilities increase the efficiency and the working ergonomics of the system tremendously. The operators in the control room do not have to watch the camera signals permanently since they will be alerted as soon as something happens.
Sophisticated Planning and Complete Solutions
Many control rooms in the world suffer from mistakes made during the planning of the installation or refurbishment. There are so many things that have to be considered when equipping a control room that it is worth relying professional solutions to avoid later failures in operation. The large screen system is only one piece of this puzzle which plays a decisive role being the core of the installation. Its reliable operation is most likely when the complete system comes from one provider, since this reduces problems of incompatibility to a minimum. But for a perfect operation of a control room it is extremely important that all integrated systems and components interact as perfect, and as efficient as possible. The installed furniture and technological hardware has to fulfil certain ergonomic criteria to enable useful deployment of the entire installation. Ambitious control room installations are well coordinated compositions of furniture, large screen systems, hardware and software, and facility related equipment such as room layout, lighting conditions and air conditioning. If these aspects are taken into calculation from the beginning, the control room serves its purpose best, and makes traffic more safe and comfortable.
The growing volume of traffic and transportation, not only in industrialised countries but also in developing economies, has led to an increasing requirement for traffic management and surveillance. More traffic on roads, highways and railways require more tunnels, more bridges, more junctions, or in other words: places were accidents are more likely to happen. In order to cope with the problems and dangers rising with this development, new traffic control rooms have been installed all around the world. Traffic surveillance itself has shifted from the mere watching of camera signals on CRT monitor walls towards the interactive display of various signal types on large video walls in modern control rooms. These large scale video wall systems are the core of today’s traffic control rooms. Software developers have produced many useful tools, such as automatic licence plate recognition, traffic flow measurement, and other telematics related tools. But there is hardly any sense in deploying all these, if you cannot display their information to all operators in the control room.
State-of-the-art display technology for control rooms
Times when large screen systems were just CRT monitors stacked on top of each other are definitely over. The question which display technology to choose depends on several decisive criteria. Reliability of the system in long-term operation is a “conditio sine qua non” for display solutions in control rooms. Other factors that have to be considered are the best possible image quality, ergonomic viewing, economic costs and the type and number of the connected signal sources. Technologies that do not create gaps which disturb the displayed image are therefore preferred. Normal projectors are not suitable for control room applications since the quality of the projected image strongly depends on the lighting conditions. So called “seamless” Plasma monitors are likely to suffer from burn-in effects and ghost-images with static image content. Most modern control room applications rely on DLP™-technology based rear-projection units, so called “cubes”, for their video walls. This technology has many advantages which makes it the best solution available at the moment. The cubes are available in many different sizes and resolutions. They can be stacked to build up video walls of almost any size. Thanks to their way of construction there are almost no gaps between adjacent cubes. This allows scaling and positioning of windows independently from the borders of the individual units of a wall.
Their main disadvantage is the depth of the cubes and an additional required space behind the video wall which has to remain for maintenance. Some manufacturers have solved this problem with front-maintenance options.
Liquid crystal-based video walls were rarely used for large screen systems in the past because of the wide gaps in-between the individual displays of a “tiled” video wall. When putting common LC displays together the resulting gap measured up to ten centimetres. Now providers of control room display solutions have developed professional LC displays which offer the outstanding image characteristics of the technology and at the same time create only minimal gaps in a combined large screen. Thanks to their advantages concerning space requirement, costs and display quality they have become a considerable alternative to DLP™-cubes. Whether you choose rear-projection, which is still the leading technology for control rooms, or LC displays for a control room depends on the money available and the size of the room, which also determines the viewing distances and angles for the operators.
Diversity of Signals
Today’s traffic management centres have to handle many different signal types from a multitude of sources: analogue and digital video camera signals, traffic management software applications, incoming alarms from emergency services, and many more. Most sources in traffic control room are definitely video signals from surveillance cameras. These signals can be transmitted as RGB, DVI or as streaming video signals via IP networks. The inputs for the large screen systems are usually provided by the corresponding graphics controller. Besides the connectivity, the device creates the coherent desktop surface on the large screen elements. These graphics controllers use high-end processors and graphic chips to handle the huge data masses created through the video signals. The controllers, as well as further server units should be placed in separate server rooms, since the necessary ventilation may create annoying noise emissions.
Video streams using IP networks have been a challenge for large screen systems in the past, because there are often different camera types, different encoders, and different stream formats in use, all of which have to be integrated to the system. But using IP networks for transmission of camera signal is a practical and cost-efficient method, so industry reacted and today there are input boards available for graphic controllers which can handle these various streams.
All of these sources named above have to be connected to the large screen system. They have to be displayed, either constantly or on demand, and they have to be controllable.
Modern large screen systems provide very helpful software tools to operate the entire system. Incoming alarm signals or alarm messages from other software applications are automatically displayed in a predefined position and size on the video wall. Even certain automated reactions can be part of these presets. These possibilities increase the efficiency and the working ergonomics of the system tremendously. The operators in the control room do not have to watch the camera signals permanently since they will be alerted as soon as something happens.
Sophisticated Planning and Complete Solutions
Many control rooms in the world suffer from mistakes made during the planning of the installation or refurbishment. There are so many things that have to be considered when equipping a control room that it is worth relying professional solutions to avoid later failures in operation. The large screen system is only one piece of this puzzle which plays a decisive role being the core of the installation. Its reliable operation is most likely when the complete system comes from one provider, since this reduces problems of incompatibility to a minimum. But for a perfect operation of a control room it is extremely important that all integrated systems and components interact as perfect, and as efficient as possible. The installed furniture and technological hardware has to fulfil certain ergonomic criteria to enable useful deployment of the entire installation. Ambitious control room installations are well coordinated compositions of furniture, large screen systems, hardware and software, and facility related equipment such as room layout, lighting conditions and air conditioning. If these aspects are taken into calculation from the beginning, the control room serves its purpose best, and makes traffic more safe and comfortable.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Airport projects
New Projects
Cairns International Airport Redevelopment Project, Queensland, Australia
London Luton Airport (LTN/EGGW), United Kingdom
London Stansted Airport (STN/EGSS), United Kingdom
Cairo International Airport, Egypt
San Antonio International Airport Expansion, USA
Wellington International Airport, New Zealand
Vancouver International Airport, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Copenhagen Airport, Denmark
Washington Dulles International Airport, USA
Toulouse-Blagnac International Airport, France
Spaceport America, Upham, Sierra County, New Mexico, USA
Newark Liberty International Airport, USA
Queenstown International Airport, New Zealand
VC Bird International Airport, Antigua and Barbuda
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, Carolina, Puerto Rico
Updated Projects
Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH/OMAA), United Arab Emirates
San Francisco International Airport (SFO/KSFO), CA, USA
Auckland International Airport (AKL/NZAA), New Zealand
Dublin Airport Expansion, Republic of Ireland
Danang International Airport, Vietnam
Kotoka International Airport (ACC/DGAA), Accra, Ghana
JFK International Airport (JFK/KJFK), New York, NY, USA
Centrair (NGO/RJGG), Tokoname, Japan
Bremerhaven Airport (BRV/EDWB), Germany
Miami International Airport (MIA/KMIA), FL, USA
Cairns International Airport Redevelopment Project, Queensland, Australia
London Luton Airport (LTN/EGGW), United Kingdom
London Stansted Airport (STN/EGSS), United Kingdom
Cairo International Airport, Egypt
San Antonio International Airport Expansion, USA
Wellington International Airport, New Zealand
Vancouver International Airport, Richmond, British Columbia, Canada
Copenhagen Airport, Denmark
Washington Dulles International Airport, USA
Toulouse-Blagnac International Airport, France
Spaceport America, Upham, Sierra County, New Mexico, USA
Newark Liberty International Airport, USA
Queenstown International Airport, New Zealand
VC Bird International Airport, Antigua and Barbuda
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, Carolina, Puerto Rico
Updated Projects
Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH/OMAA), United Arab Emirates
San Francisco International Airport (SFO/KSFO), CA, USA
Auckland International Airport (AKL/NZAA), New Zealand
Dublin Airport Expansion, Republic of Ireland
Danang International Airport, Vietnam
Kotoka International Airport (ACC/DGAA), Accra, Ghana
JFK International Airport (JFK/KJFK), New York, NY, USA
Centrair (NGO/RJGG), Tokoname, Japan
Bremerhaven Airport (BRV/EDWB), Germany
Miami International Airport (MIA/KMIA), FL, USA
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Homeland Security Market
Global Homeland Security Spending will triple up to USD 178 Billion by 2015
In this booming sector it is expected that governments and others worldwide will invest more than 59 billion USD in 2008 to secure their home countries. By 2015 it is expected to be more than 178 billion USD.
In this booming sector it is expected that governments and others worldwide will invest more than 59 billion USD in 2008 to secure their home countries. By 2015 it is expected to be more than 178 billion USD.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Wey Group
The WEY Group is a globally active developer and manufacturer of unique solutions for secure, simple display and control of various real-time data for trading rooms, security control centers, health care applications and infotainment.
The Swiss headquartered group operates in 11 different countries. And is the only one-stop supplier who develops and manufactures virtually all of its products and solutions in-house. The use of first-class components, high-quality Swiss workmanship and a strict final inspection, guarantee first-class quality and flawless functioning of its Products.
The technically and ergonomically demanding systems consist of three main areas: Desktop Integration, Allocation Systems and Remote Solutions.
WEY has developed keyboards like no other in the world that allow a single keyboard and mouse to control several workstations and presets from a video wall with just one press of a button. A PC, whose application licenses are generally very expensive, can for example be shared by several keyboards and users. The keyboards are modular and can be individually configured to meet user, hardware and application requirements. For example in combination with the eyecon software the keyboard can control services and video wall presets.
The functionality of the WEY Keyboards can be extended with the WEY Allocation Systems and the Remote Solutions, in order to control the handling of video signals from the workstation, to the monitors on the desk over copper and fiber cabling.
The Swiss headquartered group operates in 11 different countries. And is the only one-stop supplier who develops and manufactures virtually all of its products and solutions in-house. The use of first-class components, high-quality Swiss workmanship and a strict final inspection, guarantee first-class quality and flawless functioning of its Products.
The technically and ergonomically demanding systems consist of three main areas: Desktop Integration, Allocation Systems and Remote Solutions.
WEY has developed keyboards like no other in the world that allow a single keyboard and mouse to control several workstations and presets from a video wall with just one press of a button. A PC, whose application licenses are generally very expensive, can for example be shared by several keyboards and users. The keyboards are modular and can be individually configured to meet user, hardware and application requirements. For example in combination with the eyecon software the keyboard can control services and video wall presets.
The functionality of the WEY Keyboards can be extended with the WEY Allocation Systems and the Remote Solutions, in order to control the handling of video signals from the workstation, to the monitors on the desk over copper and fiber cabling.
Network based Video Surveillance
IP, or Internet Protocol, is the technology on everybody's lips. Nowadays it's hard to imagine life without the Internet or Intranet, and the same goes for the video surveillance industry.
For example, take the cleaning equipment manufacturer Kärcher. This German firm uses SeeTec's network-based video surveillance solution, which provides a whole range of benefits: "We were able to make optimum use of the existing network infrastructure," explains project manager Joachim Schmitt. This is because Kärcher uses IP video surveillance in the productive network together with other systems such as inventory management, CRM, and e-mail. By opting for an IP solution the company was able to implement a modern video surveillance system. Another plus, says the company, is the system's flexibility. "You can add system upgrades and expansions virtually at will." And last but not least, the system is simple and intuitive to operate.
It was back in 1998 that SeeTec developed the world's first IP camera management software. Over the past few years it has implemented countless projects, ranging from one camera to several thousands. Companies such as ARAG Versicherungen, Eurogate (at the ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven), Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, ABN Amro, ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) and many more often use the software at many different sites around the world.
The SeeTec 5 software does not depend on hardware from a particular manufacturer. The system operator can use network cameras and video servers from any of the major manufacturers, combining their different advantages. This is just one of the reasons why SeeTec 5 can adapt flexibly to existing system requirements and is also more powerful and cost-efficient than conventional video systems. Existing analog video components are easy to integrate into the system. External systems can be integrated and controlled using a wide range of existing interfaces (TCP/IP, OPC, SeeTec 5 Embed API).
This includes eyevis video walls, for example. SeeTec 5 video surveillance can operate in the background in a small part of an eyevis cube, expanding to fill the complete video wall if a certain event occurs, for example if a camera detects movement.By using eyevis and SeeTec software in combination, the customer can extract optimum benefit from both innovative technologies.
For example, take the cleaning equipment manufacturer Kärcher. This German firm uses SeeTec's network-based video surveillance solution, which provides a whole range of benefits: "We were able to make optimum use of the existing network infrastructure," explains project manager Joachim Schmitt. This is because Kärcher uses IP video surveillance in the productive network together with other systems such as inventory management, CRM, and e-mail. By opting for an IP solution the company was able to implement a modern video surveillance system. Another plus, says the company, is the system's flexibility. "You can add system upgrades and expansions virtually at will." And last but not least, the system is simple and intuitive to operate.
It was back in 1998 that SeeTec developed the world's first IP camera management software. Over the past few years it has implemented countless projects, ranging from one camera to several thousands. Companies such as ARAG Versicherungen, Eurogate (at the ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven), Adolf Würth GmbH & Co. KG, ABN Amro, ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) and many more often use the software at many different sites around the world.
The SeeTec 5 software does not depend on hardware from a particular manufacturer. The system operator can use network cameras and video servers from any of the major manufacturers, combining their different advantages. This is just one of the reasons why SeeTec 5 can adapt flexibly to existing system requirements and is also more powerful and cost-efficient than conventional video systems. Existing analog video components are easy to integrate into the system. External systems can be integrated and controlled using a wide range of existing interfaces (TCP/IP, OPC, SeeTec 5 Embed API).
This includes eyevis video walls, for example. SeeTec 5 video surveillance can operate in the background in a small part of an eyevis cube, expanding to fill the complete video wall if a certain event occurs, for example if a camera detects movement.By using eyevis and SeeTec software in combination, the customer can extract optimum benefit from both innovative technologies.
Control station system – up to date
Control stations are used for various working areas in the field of control and safety: In communication centres, production, power plants, network control stations, control centres for power and water supply, fire brigades, rescue, traffic and buildings.
Videotaping systems, radio message systems, alarm sensors, video control, network systems, common wave systems, computers, TFT monitors, radio systems, documentation equipment etc. require a perfect integration of the technical equipment. Furthermore, the operating and display units have to be arranged ergonomically.
For this reason control stations are more than only a storage space for the hardware today. Technics may not be a burden for the high performance users of these work stations. Therefore, when developing and designing control stations, Leuwico attaches importance to a reasonable integration of the technics instead of hiding it. The required high flexibility demands modular furnishing systems for customized configurations. Conclusive design, mo-dern shapes and the creative accentuation of the basic principle are characteristic for the appearance. A positive aspect: The height adjustment as component of the programme. With simple adjustment mechanisms the single components can be adapted to the users, the tasks and the habits. This is an important criteria especially for control stations in order to fulfil the requirements for shift-working and desk sharing. Another advantage which should not be ignored: the change of the working position supports concentration and helps to prevent discomfort caused by a lack of movement and onesided strain.
Rectangular, hexagonal and curved basic shapes build a modular system. Manual or electric height adjustments enable any possible height for the work surfaces. The integration of digital and analogue technique into technic boxes and control panel housings gives the work stations a modern and light appearance. Monitor rails, add-on shelves, work place lighting, loudspea-kers and ventilators complete this system.
The programmes fulfil the more and more diversified requirements. Important criteria: The optimal solution varies individually, therefore, the different functions can be combined freely in order to offer a maximum of flexibility and space for the user. Some examples for control station furnishings can be found under www.leuwico.com ® special solutions.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Display technologies for control rooms: DLP cubes
DLP Cubes:
Disadvantages:
-more space required than with other technologies
-higher purchasing cost
Advantages:
-No memory or burn-in effect
-Easily extendable, a lot of options
-Perfect overview, high image quality
-Saving potentials, energy
-Low heat dissipation
-homogenous colour representation over the whole surface
-homogenous brightness uniformity over whole surface
-long-term stability
-seamless display nearly no gaps
-non-glare screen surface
-high viewing angle
-integrated optimizing functions
-designed for 24/7
-No memory or burn-in effect
-Easily extendable, a lot of options
-Perfect overview, high image quality
-Saving potentials, energy
-Low heat dissipation
-homogenous colour representation over the whole surface
-homogenous brightness uniformity over whole surface
-long-term stability
-seamless display nearly no gaps
-non-glare screen surface
-high viewing angle
-integrated optimizing functions
-designed for 24/7
-redundancy features available
-image enhancing features available like automatic brightness and colour correction
-control over network possible
There are also different options available in such cubes, like front maintenance systems and large screen walls on rails as space saving solution for control rooms with limited space.
Today this technology is the most used in control rooms. It is important to use these displays together with graphics controllers and display management software. In order to obtain a perfect system, all these components should be available from the same manufacturer.
Display technologies for control rooms: Plasma
Plasma Monitor wall:
Disadvantages:
-Burn-in of static images
-Usual image format is 16:9
-Large gaps in between the displays
-High power consumption
-Low resolution
-Not designed for 24/7
Usually this technology is not uses in control room applications, only in some low cost video surveillance installations, because of the problem of burn-in of static images and the other mentioned restrictions.
Display technologies for control rooms: CRT
CRT Monitor wall:
Disadvantages:
-High energy consumption
-Inflexible display
-Large required space
-High maintenance costs
-Complexity of display
-Old-fashioned display
-Bad ergonomics
-High thermal load
-No longer spare parts available
-With CRT monitors, burn-in of static images
-Large spaces in between the single display units
-limited screen sizes and resolutions
In general nowadays this technology is no longer used.
Disadvantages:
-High energy consumption
-Inflexible display
-Large required space
-High maintenance costs
-Complexity of display
-Old-fashioned display
-Bad ergonomics
-High thermal load
-No longer spare parts available
-With CRT monitors, burn-in of static images
-Large spaces in between the single display units
-limited screen sizes and resolutions
In general nowadays this technology is no longer used.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Modern control room equipment is supporting the human viewers
Modern control room:
Old style control rooms:
Video surveillance and other control room operations are very useful, but only if, as the experiences shows, people are sitting in front of the monitors or large screen systems. New ergonomic command and control rooms of disaster management centres, homeland security centres, border control centres, security control centres, power plant control centres, network management centres, traffic management and surveillance centres, CCTV surveillance centres, security centres, police or emergency centres are assisting the attention of the viewers, deliver additional information, features and create connectivity to other systems.
We all know the times, where operators where sitting the whole night in front of a huge amount of glimmering small monitors which they should have under control and to launch alarms and to trigger provisions. Nowadays this changed in most cases, due to the fact that people are not made to stare for hours on unchanging images. Investigations have shown that viewers monitoring several monitors, already miss after 12 minutes around 45% of the information. Additional 10 minutes later around 95% of the information is not correctly recorded. The security sector has recognized this problem and with modern video-analysis and new applications alarms are generated, which generate alarms and display the related scenes on the main monitor of the control room (in general a large display system consisting of DLP cubes or LCD monitors). Enhanced algorithms have decreased the rate of false alarms. These features relieve the operators and strengthen the effectiveness of the control room. But not only the innovative video analysis systems and applications are important in these control centres also the use of advanced large screen systems is a key factor to improve productivity and effectiveness of the surveillance tasks. Another important factor is the 24/7 issue, this means that all the system have to be designed for 24/7 operation, the best solution would be to have redundant systems, when one component is failing, the redundant one is taking over. This should also applied for the large video screens and related systems. Today there is a huge number of large video screen and monitor manufacturers which cavort on the market. But only very few of them can offer integrated complete solutions dedicated for 24/7 with redundant features. For example a lot of manufacturers offer only the display, but not the controller, which is controlling the matrix of displays and the management software to administrate and control all the connected sources and processes. That makes it important to choose a manufacturer who offer a complete solution, composed of displays (DLP cubes or LCD monitors), graphics controllers and management software. Of course in such control room applications it is not possible to use displays from electronics supermarkets, because these displays have in general no optimizing features for 24/7. Image quality is also a key factor for a perfect control room environment. In order to give an added value and additional features to the large display systems, the so-called wall-management software is essential.
We all know the times, where operators where sitting the whole night in front of a huge amount of glimmering small monitors which they should have under control and to launch alarms and to trigger provisions. Nowadays this changed in most cases, due to the fact that people are not made to stare for hours on unchanging images. Investigations have shown that viewers monitoring several monitors, already miss after 12 minutes around 45% of the information. Additional 10 minutes later around 95% of the information is not correctly recorded. The security sector has recognized this problem and with modern video-analysis and new applications alarms are generated, which generate alarms and display the related scenes on the main monitor of the control room (in general a large display system consisting of DLP cubes or LCD monitors). Enhanced algorithms have decreased the rate of false alarms. These features relieve the operators and strengthen the effectiveness of the control room. But not only the innovative video analysis systems and applications are important in these control centres also the use of advanced large screen systems is a key factor to improve productivity and effectiveness of the surveillance tasks. Another important factor is the 24/7 issue, this means that all the system have to be designed for 24/7 operation, the best solution would be to have redundant systems, when one component is failing, the redundant one is taking over. This should also applied for the large video screens and related systems. Today there is a huge number of large video screen and monitor manufacturers which cavort on the market. But only very few of them can offer integrated complete solutions dedicated for 24/7 with redundant features. For example a lot of manufacturers offer only the display, but not the controller, which is controlling the matrix of displays and the management software to administrate and control all the connected sources and processes. That makes it important to choose a manufacturer who offer a complete solution, composed of displays (DLP cubes or LCD monitors), graphics controllers and management software. Of course in such control room applications it is not possible to use displays from electronics supermarkets, because these displays have in general no optimizing features for 24/7. Image quality is also a key factor for a perfect control room environment. In order to give an added value and additional features to the large display systems, the so-called wall-management software is essential.
Multiple benefits
The requirements of a control room team increase, for example firefighters want to see the position plan before the mission in order to see the details around the fire area to know with which dangers they must calculate and which equipment will be necessary. The chemical industry wants to know when they get an alarm message from the process control system where the problem exactly comes from. Images from cameras can facilitate decisions. Modern control rooms are using the possibility to use flexible controllable monitors in video walls to visualize CCTV images and other information.
Every time these are complex data from computing management systems, which are ergonomically visualized and adjusted to the absorbing capacity of the users, that they can work efficiently. The multitude of information must be displayed in a way that the operators can see immediately if something goes wrong, if any error appears or alarms are detected.
Nowadays it is also important to use large screen display systems which are able to accept multiple inputs. As IP video (streaming video) cameras are more and more used, but still analog cameras are used at the same time, also RGB or DVI sources as well as network sources have to be displayed on a large video screen. This makes it necessary that the manufacturer of the video wall is also having a controller which can accept this multitude of inputs at the same time without using additional external devices. The netpix controller series from eyevis is such a system accepting all the different source inputs.
The crisis case
The most important is a well organized presentation in a crisis case. In fact in emergency control centres the operators are normally only well-trained specialists, but in most cases they don’t have concrete knowledge of place, eventhough they must take decisions within seconds and have an overview on the situation with the available information and trigger the further steps by means of the deposited alarm plans. This is possible through integrated control rooms with intelligent software solutions. This starts with the graphical presentation. Big, high-resolution monitor walls, like offered by eyevis gives an overview on the situations, which can be seen by the operators in the control room, but also immediately by the management entering the centre. Additionally the directors of operation can get messages via SMS, email or directly on their desktop monitor at their workplace, which must not necessarily be inside the control room, it can be in the same building or even in other locations. This is also an advantage when teams of several control rooms have to collaborate in some cases.
Visual impact
As humans are very good in gathering information visually, therefore it is important to use display concepts and layouts where only important information is displayed, via alarm management in case of alarms, the for the alarm relevant information will be intruded or come in the foreground. So this means that not the quantity of displayed sources is important, but to have the relevant data available in a case of an alarm. In other words for example it is not necessary to view a camera image while nothing is happening, but it is better to have motion detection systems and when the motion detector is detecting something, automatically the camera image is launched and visualized on the large display screen.
The requirements of a control room team increase, for example firefighters want to see the position plan before the mission in order to see the details around the fire area to know with which dangers they must calculate and which equipment will be necessary. The chemical industry wants to know when they get an alarm message from the process control system where the problem exactly comes from. Images from cameras can facilitate decisions. Modern control rooms are using the possibility to use flexible controllable monitors in video walls to visualize CCTV images and other information.
Every time these are complex data from computing management systems, which are ergonomically visualized and adjusted to the absorbing capacity of the users, that they can work efficiently. The multitude of information must be displayed in a way that the operators can see immediately if something goes wrong, if any error appears or alarms are detected.
Nowadays it is also important to use large screen display systems which are able to accept multiple inputs. As IP video (streaming video) cameras are more and more used, but still analog cameras are used at the same time, also RGB or DVI sources as well as network sources have to be displayed on a large video screen. This makes it necessary that the manufacturer of the video wall is also having a controller which can accept this multitude of inputs at the same time without using additional external devices. The netpix controller series from eyevis is such a system accepting all the different source inputs.
The crisis case
The most important is a well organized presentation in a crisis case. In fact in emergency control centres the operators are normally only well-trained specialists, but in most cases they don’t have concrete knowledge of place, eventhough they must take decisions within seconds and have an overview on the situation with the available information and trigger the further steps by means of the deposited alarm plans. This is possible through integrated control rooms with intelligent software solutions. This starts with the graphical presentation. Big, high-resolution monitor walls, like offered by eyevis gives an overview on the situations, which can be seen by the operators in the control room, but also immediately by the management entering the centre. Additionally the directors of operation can get messages via SMS, email or directly on their desktop monitor at their workplace, which must not necessarily be inside the control room, it can be in the same building or even in other locations. This is also an advantage when teams of several control rooms have to collaborate in some cases.
Visual impact
As humans are very good in gathering information visually, therefore it is important to use display concepts and layouts where only important information is displayed, via alarm management in case of alarms, the for the alarm relevant information will be intruded or come in the foreground. So this means that not the quantity of displayed sources is important, but to have the relevant data available in a case of an alarm. In other words for example it is not necessary to view a camera image while nothing is happening, but it is better to have motion detection systems and when the motion detector is detecting something, automatically the camera image is launched and visualized on the large display screen.
Monday, March 3, 2008
DLP Cubes with SmoothPicture/Wobulation or native resolution?
Some manufacturers of DLP cubes use SmoothPicture or Wobulation technology and some use native resolution.
To reduce the cost of a single chip DLP® projection engine, Texas Instruments has implemented a technology called Smooth Picture. This technology, also referred to as Wobulation, takes half of the desired native resolution of a DMD chip and oscillates it back and forth to give the appearance of full native resolution.
Smooth Picture, is basically horizontal wobulation designed to produce a 1080p (1920x1080) picture with just 960x1080 mirrors; that’s half the horizontal micro-mirrors. Wobulation works under the same principle of interlacing, showing half an image at a time, but at such a fast rate that the eye is fooled into viewing the entire picture. The technology generates two sub-images, each one having half the horizontal pixels (960) of the original image (1920). The 960 micro-mirrors tilts at a rate (120 times per second) that allows each one to generate two pixels, 60 times per second. That’s how 960 micromirrors can generate 1920 pixels on the screen at 60 frames per second. Below are examples of the same image content shown on two different displays, one utilizing Smooth Picture technology and the other a native SXGA+ DMD™ chip . The SXGA+ unit utilizes one micromirror per signal pixel, matching the signal resolution and enabling a sharp and correct high resolution image. Smooth Picture processing has two pixels that share one mirror, creating a softer image with perceived high resolution.
The downside of this technology is that it reduces sharpness since the 1920x1080 image displayed on the screen is not painted by the same amount of physical micro-mirrors.
Wobulation is the humorously coined term when a single mirror is used for two pixels. The mirror spends 1/120th of a second on one pixel and then wobbles over to the adjacent pixel, and spends 1/120th of a second there. Therefore, using the same mirror to produce 2 pixels in 1/60th of a second. Once again, this rapid motion is too fast for our eyes to see. The advantage of wobulation is a reduction in manufacturing costs since only half the mirrors are needed. Some also say that the picture is smoother and flows better. The disadvantage of wobulation is lower sharpness and lower clarity levels.
Especially when displaying data the image is dramatically bad compared to native or true resolution displays.
Because the native resolution of a Smooth Picture device is smaller than the XGA and SXGA+ resolutions of most data images, these images are reproduced with only half of the information at any give instant. While the Smooth Picture process reproduces an image that the eye perceives as full resolution, this process is not able to display the full resolution all at once and has a tendency to create a soft image. This approach works well for typical video signals, but the net loss of resolution and sharpness can affect how computer data and graphics are displayed.
To reduce the cost of a single chip DLP® projection engine, Texas Instruments has implemented a technology called Smooth Picture. This technology, also referred to as Wobulation, takes half of the desired native resolution of a DMD chip and oscillates it back and forth to give the appearance of full native resolution.
Smooth Picture, is basically horizontal wobulation designed to produce a 1080p (1920x1080) picture with just 960x1080 mirrors; that’s half the horizontal micro-mirrors. Wobulation works under the same principle of interlacing, showing half an image at a time, but at such a fast rate that the eye is fooled into viewing the entire picture. The technology generates two sub-images, each one having half the horizontal pixels (960) of the original image (1920). The 960 micro-mirrors tilts at a rate (120 times per second) that allows each one to generate two pixels, 60 times per second. That’s how 960 micromirrors can generate 1920 pixels on the screen at 60 frames per second. Below are examples of the same image content shown on two different displays, one utilizing Smooth Picture technology and the other a native SXGA+ DMD™ chip . The SXGA+ unit utilizes one micromirror per signal pixel, matching the signal resolution and enabling a sharp and correct high resolution image. Smooth Picture processing has two pixels that share one mirror, creating a softer image with perceived high resolution.
The downside of this technology is that it reduces sharpness since the 1920x1080 image displayed on the screen is not painted by the same amount of physical micro-mirrors.
Wobulation is the humorously coined term when a single mirror is used for two pixels. The mirror spends 1/120th of a second on one pixel and then wobbles over to the adjacent pixel, and spends 1/120th of a second there. Therefore, using the same mirror to produce 2 pixels in 1/60th of a second. Once again, this rapid motion is too fast for our eyes to see. The advantage of wobulation is a reduction in manufacturing costs since only half the mirrors are needed. Some also say that the picture is smoother and flows better. The disadvantage of wobulation is lower sharpness and lower clarity levels.
Especially when displaying data the image is dramatically bad compared to native or true resolution displays.
Because the native resolution of a Smooth Picture device is smaller than the XGA and SXGA+ resolutions of most data images, these images are reproduced with only half of the information at any give instant. While the Smooth Picture process reproduces an image that the eye perceives as full resolution, this process is not able to display the full resolution all at once and has a tendency to create a soft image. This approach works well for typical video signals, but the net loss of resolution and sharpness can affect how computer data and graphics are displayed.
Large Display Screens For The Energy Sector
Water
Sewage plants, water services, hydro-electric plants, dams In the field of water supplies, sewage plants and water works, the greater demand for water, together with climate change and the increased volume of waste water has inevitably led to an increased volume of data. This information must then necessarily be displayed in more detail and yet presented in a user-friendly format. As the standard solution in control rooms for SCADA and DCS systems large screen systems are the automatic choice. The operators can monitor in real time video walls, flow charts, pumps, valves, pressure gauges, volume indicators, counters, status information, etc. At the same time, it is also possible to visualise on the video wall information from surveiHance cameras at strategic locations. This means that comprehensive monitoring of production and processing plant is possible ensuring that, defects and breakdowns can be swiftly identified and rectified. A primary concern here is, too, the safety aspect, which has such a great influence on the productivity and efficiency of such an installation
Electricity
Energy Production -power plants -energy distribution -energy networks -power transmission-municipal utilities-waste incinerating plants Due to the growing demand for energy, ecological aspects and competitive forces efficient procedures for monitoring procedures and monitoring systems have come to the fore. In this field large data displays in conjunction with SCADA systems are generally used for monitoring and management centres. The operators must be supplied in real time with intelligible, clearly displayed data. Ibis information consists for the most part of flow charts, energy networks, pipelines and voltage overland lines, gauge readings, pressure levels, pump und valve adjustments. Further applications which must be displayed are SCADA and DCS applications, graphic representations, production overviews, network tables, camera signals, customer-specific software and applications concerned with transmission, distribution and production. An optimal and reliable visualisation solution makes a decisive contribution to the prevention of breakdowns.
Sewage plants, water services, hydro-electric plants, dams In the field of water supplies, sewage plants and water works, the greater demand for water, together with climate change and the increased volume of waste water has inevitably led to an increased volume of data. This information must then necessarily be displayed in more detail and yet presented in a user-friendly format. As the standard solution in control rooms for SCADA and DCS systems large screen systems are the automatic choice. The operators can monitor in real time video walls, flow charts, pumps, valves, pressure gauges, volume indicators, counters, status information, etc. At the same time, it is also possible to visualise on the video wall information from surveiHance cameras at strategic locations. This means that comprehensive monitoring of production and processing plant is possible ensuring that, defects and breakdowns can be swiftly identified and rectified. A primary concern here is, too, the safety aspect, which has such a great influence on the productivity and efficiency of such an installation
Electricity
Energy Production -power plants -energy distribution -energy networks -power transmission-municipal utilities-waste incinerating plants Due to the growing demand for energy, ecological aspects and competitive forces efficient procedures for monitoring procedures and monitoring systems have come to the fore. In this field large data displays in conjunction with SCADA systems are generally used for monitoring and management centres. The operators must be supplied in real time with intelligible, clearly displayed data. Ibis information consists for the most part of flow charts, energy networks, pipelines and voltage overland lines, gauge readings, pressure levels, pump und valve adjustments. Further applications which must be displayed are SCADA and DCS applications, graphic representations, production overviews, network tables, camera signals, customer-specific software and applications concerned with transmission, distribution and production. An optimal and reliable visualisation solution makes a decisive contribution to the prevention of breakdowns.
Control rooms for Transportation and Traffic
Roads – Motorways – Underground Railways – Trains –Trams – Canals – Tunnels – Airports – Waterways - Bridges - Traffic Control Centres
With the ever-growing volume of traffic, increasing accident numbers, fires in road and rail tunnels, assaults, vandalism and traffic congestion, the constantly expanding traffic network and also environmental concerns in the field of transport it is now essential that data and information received from traffic detectors, traffic signals, surveillance cameras or other sources are centrally administered, monitored and distributed in a control room, for example, in a traffic or tunnel control centre. This guarantees prompt checking and management of the data and therefore an increase in productivity, efficiency and mobility. The safety of roads, tunnels, motorways, rail networks, waterways and air traffic largely depends on the availability and readability of the data and information in the control room. The automatic choice for the operative tasks in a central control room is therefore a video wall system. All applications, data and video signals can be displayed in real time, so that even in extreme situations a rapid response is possible, enabling appropriate measures to be implemented immediately. In this sector, for instance, the following information will be visualized: graphics (maps, road or rail networks, time-tables …), GPS applications, camera signals, traffic detectors, signal systems, fan and ventilator status indicators, alarm signals and other monitoring systems.
With the ever-growing volume of traffic, increasing accident numbers, fires in road and rail tunnels, assaults, vandalism and traffic congestion, the constantly expanding traffic network and also environmental concerns in the field of transport it is now essential that data and information received from traffic detectors, traffic signals, surveillance cameras or other sources are centrally administered, monitored and distributed in a control room, for example, in a traffic or tunnel control centre. This guarantees prompt checking and management of the data and therefore an increase in productivity, efficiency and mobility. The safety of roads, tunnels, motorways, rail networks, waterways and air traffic largely depends on the availability and readability of the data and information in the control room. The automatic choice for the operative tasks in a central control room is therefore a video wall system. All applications, data and video signals can be displayed in real time, so that even in extreme situations a rapid response is possible, enabling appropriate measures to be implemented immediately. In this sector, for instance, the following information will be visualized: graphics (maps, road or rail networks, time-tables …), GPS applications, camera signals, traffic detectors, signal systems, fan and ventilator status indicators, alarm signals and other monitoring systems.
Large Screen Systems For Security – Defence – Civil Defence/Homeland Security - Fire and Rescue Services - Emergency Services
Battlespace Centres - Tactical Analysis Centres – Deployment Control Centres – Military Command Centres – Air Traffic Control – Customs and Excise – Coastguards – Public or Private Security Centres – Alarm Control Units– Emergency Centres
Rising crime rates, vandalism and terrorism, as well as an increasing number of conflict zones have led to an increased need for observation systems in the field of security. Generally speaking, in security centres a variety of video camera streams, together with other sources have to be constantly monitored. Reliable and robust systems are needed, whereby particular care must be taken to respect data protection laws when handling private and confidential data. Video wall solutions should therefore be suitable for connection to installations carrying such data.Reliable and real-time access to such sensitive data must be guaranteed in a continuously operating system. Needed here are presentations, graphic representations (maps, networks), GPS applications, monitoring systems, video signals, tactical applications, PCs, etc.. Control rooms in this field support decision management, crisis management, infrastructure protection, CCTV surveillance, flight control, mobile commando centres for modern warfare, control of troop movements, parameter control, protection from attack, radar observation, etc.
Rising crime rates, vandalism and terrorism, as well as an increasing number of conflict zones have led to an increased need for observation systems in the field of security. Generally speaking, in security centres a variety of video camera streams, together with other sources have to be constantly monitored. Reliable and robust systems are needed, whereby particular care must be taken to respect data protection laws when handling private and confidential data. Video wall solutions should therefore be suitable for connection to installations carrying such data.Reliable and real-time access to such sensitive data must be guaranteed in a continuously operating system. Needed here are presentations, graphic representations (maps, networks), GPS applications, monitoring systems, video signals, tactical applications, PCs, etc.. Control rooms in this field support decision management, crisis management, infrastructure protection, CCTV surveillance, flight control, mobile commando centres for modern warfare, control of troop movements, parameter control, protection from attack, radar observation, etc.
Large Display Systems For Police, Fire Departments And Other Emergency Services
The growing danger of criminal activities, not only since September 11th 2001, and the increasing risk of natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes have lead to a rising demand for surveillance systems in the security-related branches. The information material from various sources has to be displayed in real-time and highest reliability in the according operating centres of these services. The coordination of surveillance, control and planning of reaction activities is the decisive task for the operators. Therefore all involved institutions have to be interconnected and have to work together to fulfil their purposes appropriately. Multiple sources have to be visualised on large screen walls, which can be delivered in almost any size. For example, it is possible to display a large number of video cameras together with graphics and other signals, simultaneously. An almost unlimited number of different windows can be placed on the large screen display in almost any size.
Large screen systems are predestined for such applications, since they save a lot of space, weight and energy compared with conventional monitor solutions. The major advantage of such systems is the high resolution and the integrated display of video and data signals.
Large screen systems are predestined for such applications, since they save a lot of space, weight and energy compared with conventional monitor solutions. The major advantage of such systems is the high resolution and the integrated display of video and data signals.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Resolutions with IP video
CIF stands for Common Intermediate Format, standard video formats with different resolutions.
QCIF: Quarter CIF (176x144 pixels)
SQCIF: Sub quarter CIF (128x96 pixels)
4CIF: 4x CIF (704x576 pixels)
16CIF: 16x CIF (1408x1152 pixels)
QCIF: Quarter CIF (176x144 pixels)
SQCIF: Sub quarter CIF (128x96 pixels)
4CIF: 4x CIF (704x576 pixels)
16CIF: 16x CIF (1408x1152 pixels)
IP video compression standards
MPEG means Moving Picture Experts Group. This group of experts was established in 1988 in order to develop standars for digital audio and video formats. The following MPEG standards are available:
MPEG-1: up to 1,5 Mbit/sec.. It is a compression for audio and video, this standard is known from videos on the internet (.mpeg files). The 3rd level of MPEG-1 is for audio compression and is commonly known as MP3.
MPEG-2: up to 1,5 and 15 Mbit/sec. On this standard digital TV set top boxes and DVD compression are based. MPEG-2 is based on MPEG-1, but dedicated to transmit digital broadcast TV.
MPEG-4: This standard is used for multimedia applications or web compression. It is based on object-based compression, like VR modelling languages. Índividual objects are tracked seperately and compressed together to create the compressed file. It is a very efficient compression, which is scalable in a wide range of bit rates. This is a very interactive compression, because objects can be controlled independently in a scene.
MPEG-7: A standard under development at the moment, it is also known as Multimedia Content Description Interface. The main difference to the other standards is that it will provide a framework for multimedia content including information on content manipulation, filtering, personalisation, integrity and security of the content. Also information about the content will be displayed.
MPEG-21: Also under development, known as Multimedia Framework.
JPEG means Joint Photographic Experts Group, a work group of experts to develop standards for continuous tone image coding.
M-JPEG: Motion JPEG, multimedia formats where each video frame or interlaced field of a digital video sequence is separately compressed as a JPEG image. M-JPEG is also commonly used by IP based video cameras via HTTP streams.
H.261: Is a video coding standard originally designed for transmission over ISDN lines on which data rates are multiples of 64 kbit/s. It is part of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG). The coding algorithm was designed to be able to operate at video bit rates between 40 kbit/s and 2 Mbit/s. The standard supports two video frame sizes: CIF (352x288 luma with 176x144 chroma) and QCIF (176x144 with 88x72 chroma) using a 4:2:0 sampling scheme.
H.263: Is a video codec standard originally designed with a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It is one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG). It is based on the H.261 and the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2standards.
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC: standard for video compression which is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). It was written by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) in collaboration with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). The ITU-T H.264 standard and the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 Part 10 standard (formally, ISO/IEC 14496-10) are both maintained in order to have identical technical content.
MPEG-1: up to 1,5 Mbit/sec.. It is a compression for audio and video, this standard is known from videos on the internet (.mpeg files). The 3rd level of MPEG-1 is for audio compression and is commonly known as MP3.
MPEG-2: up to 1,5 and 15 Mbit/sec. On this standard digital TV set top boxes and DVD compression are based. MPEG-2 is based on MPEG-1, but dedicated to transmit digital broadcast TV.
MPEG-4: This standard is used for multimedia applications or web compression. It is based on object-based compression, like VR modelling languages. Índividual objects are tracked seperately and compressed together to create the compressed file. It is a very efficient compression, which is scalable in a wide range of bit rates. This is a very interactive compression, because objects can be controlled independently in a scene.
MPEG-7: A standard under development at the moment, it is also known as Multimedia Content Description Interface. The main difference to the other standards is that it will provide a framework for multimedia content including information on content manipulation, filtering, personalisation, integrity and security of the content. Also information about the content will be displayed.
MPEG-21: Also under development, known as Multimedia Framework.
JPEG means Joint Photographic Experts Group, a work group of experts to develop standards for continuous tone image coding.
M-JPEG: Motion JPEG, multimedia formats where each video frame or interlaced field of a digital video sequence is separately compressed as a JPEG image. M-JPEG is also commonly used by IP based video cameras via HTTP streams.
H.261: Is a video coding standard originally designed for transmission over ISDN lines on which data rates are multiples of 64 kbit/s. It is part of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG). The coding algorithm was designed to be able to operate at video bit rates between 40 kbit/s and 2 Mbit/s. The standard supports two video frame sizes: CIF (352x288 luma with 176x144 chroma) and QCIF (176x144 with 88x72 chroma) using a 4:2:0 sampling scheme.
H.263: Is a video codec standard originally designed with a low-bitrate compressed format for videoconferencing. It is one member of the H.26x family of video coding standards in the domain of the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG). It is based on the H.261 and the MPEG-1 and MPEG-2standards.
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC: standard for video compression which is also known as MPEG-4 Part 10, or MPEG-4 AVC (for Advanced Video Coding). It was written by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) in collaboration with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG). The ITU-T H.264 standard and the ISO/IEC MPEG-4 Part 10 standard (formally, ISO/IEC 14496-10) are both maintained in order to have identical technical content.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
NEW CONTROL ROOM HANDBOOK
A new control room handbook is available:
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Control-Room-Design-Ergonomics/dp/1420064290
A lot of information on control room design and technology.
http://www.amazon.com/Handbook-Control-Room-Design-Ergonomics/dp/1420064290
A lot of information on control room design and technology.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
analog or IP cameras?
There is a huge amount of different camera types from many different manufacturers are available.
But to choose the right camera for your application among these manufacturers is not the only decision you will have to take if have a camera surveillance application. Nowadays you also will have to choose if you use analog cameras or IP based camera systems. The difference between this two technologies is how the video signal is delivered, with analog cameras the signal is transmitted in a way that it can be received by monitors, televisions, receivers or DVRs. IP based cameras are digitozing the signal through an encoder to the network. Therefore the camera becomes a network device. IP cameras are available in different codecs, e.g. MPEG2, MPEG4, MJPEG, H.262...In general analog cameras are less expensive and more different types and designs are available.
Up to now analog cameras are compatible with a larger amount of systems. A big disadvantage of these analog cameras is that they are not encrypted. Also the wiring is in general very bulky because you need to make a special cabling, while today you can find everywhere network cables.
But one thing becomes more and more important, which is the compatibility of analog and IP systems, because for exisiting installations where additional cameras will be installed, this will be in general IP ones. That means that there will be a mix of the two types of cameras, therefore the related systems must be able to accept both type of signals.
But to choose the right camera for your application among these manufacturers is not the only decision you will have to take if have a camera surveillance application. Nowadays you also will have to choose if you use analog cameras or IP based camera systems. The difference between this two technologies is how the video signal is delivered, with analog cameras the signal is transmitted in a way that it can be received by monitors, televisions, receivers or DVRs. IP based cameras are digitozing the signal through an encoder to the network. Therefore the camera becomes a network device. IP cameras are available in different codecs, e.g. MPEG2, MPEG4, MJPEG, H.262...In general analog cameras are less expensive and more different types and designs are available.
Up to now analog cameras are compatible with a larger amount of systems. A big disadvantage of these analog cameras is that they are not encrypted. Also the wiring is in general very bulky because you need to make a special cabling, while today you can find everywhere network cables.
But one thing becomes more and more important, which is the compatibility of analog and IP systems, because for exisiting installations where additional cameras will be installed, this will be in general IP ones. That means that there will be a mix of the two types of cameras, therefore the related systems must be able to accept both type of signals.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
New multimedia website on security
From 1st of march the new multimedia website: http://www.euro-security.tv/ will be operational.
In this new website you will find plenty of videos on security issues as well as reports on the different exhibitions related to security.
In this new website you will find plenty of videos on security issues as well as reports on the different exhibitions related to security.
News and information
You will find great information and news on the security market, by visiting this website:
WWW.SECURITYWORLDHOTEL.COM
WWW.SECURITYWORLDHOTEL.COM
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