VuScape Streamlines Operations in New Control Tower
Challenge
The French National Railway Company’s (SNCF’s) mission is to make the travel experience simpler; to deliver seamless, sustainable passenger and freight transport; and to create the mobility of tomorrow. In order to successfully achieve that mission for the N and U, RER C, and the TER- Centre rail lines meant constructing a new control tower capable of managing any daily rail crises that arise — from an individual on the tracks, passenger discomfort, a switch problem, a power interruption, and more. This requires the coordination of the various services and access to a range of critical information sources, workstations, as well as video walls. Integrator Polymedia Europe identified that in the course of a day the organization’s challenges changed frequently. SNCF needed a visualization solution that would give the control tower teams the flexibility to manage any situation quickly — making faster decisions and responding more efficiently with visualization tools that would grant them access to up-to-date passenger and train information, no matter the display surface.
Solution
Polymedia Europe, the system integrator, deployed the VuWall VuScape video wall controller, allowing users to easily control and distribute all content sources to: two 3×2 video walls in the control room, one 3×2 video wall in the crisis room, one projector in the crisis room as well as two 2×1 LCDs in the control room.
Results
SNCF can mix baseband and IP sources on the same VuScape controller, supporting multiple 4K HDMI and DisplayPort inputs. The controller can also display any kind of content coming from cloud/network-based solutions such as websites, data, third-party SCADA, business analytics, and social media data. For SNCF operators, sources include the France 24 rolling news and weather channel; a map of France showing train schedule status, so they can instantly know which are on time or late; and the surveillance cameras at Montparnasse Station so that operators can be apprised of traffic and ensure the flow of passengers.