Markets: Command and Control Behind the screens
When dealing with life or death situations, technology that offers ease of use and total reliability is a must, writes Ian McMurray
Designing for high availability
In most environments, failure of a display wall – however temporary it may be – is not an option. There are several strategies available to minimise loss of service: inevitably, the higher the budget available, the more effectively an outage can be prevented. The majority of display wall vendors
specify high reliability/MTBF (mean time between failures) components. A primary weak point in a configuration is often the power supply, so redundant and/or hot swappable PSUs can be configured. Hard disk failures also represent a
NEC has a partnership with Hiperwall for the latter’s display wall management software
B
ill Shankly, perhaps the most famous of all managers of Liverpool FC, ensured his place
in football folklore with a remark that is still repeated 40 years later. “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death,” he said. “I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you, it is much more important than that.”
Command and control centres – for
the emergency services, utility providers, transportation companies – can also be a matter of life and death. Even those that are not often mission-critical, such as the centres used by network operators. The stakes are high – and so are the demands on the equipment. That’s true for the screens that provide the primary interface to the system, and even more so for the hardware and software that lie behind them. “The most important characteristic of a display wall control and management system is reliability,” says Peter van Dijk, business development manager for Mitsubishi Europe. “In a situation where lives may depend on the right decisions being made, a controller failure is inconceivable. A close second to system reliability would be the ability to access data reliably, quickly and effectively. Being able to get the right data or camera feed onto the wall with no delay is essential to the proper functioning of any command and control facility.”
18 IE April 2012
Rob Moodey, sales account manager at Matrox Graphics, develops the theme. “Stability is an immensely valuable but often overlooked characteristic,” he points out. “At the end of the day, a videowall which has frozen or ‘bluescreened’ is of no use. Well-written graphics drivers are a major contributor to system stability. It’s no coincidence that Matrox puts so much effort into making its drivers stable.” He goes on to note ease of use, versatility and resolution as other key attributes. David Griffiths, EMEA market
development manager for control rooms at Christie, picks up on the concept of flexibility. “No two control rooms are the same,” he says, “and it’s vital that the control/management functionality reflects the broad range of user requirements. They must also be expandable and upgradable, allowing room for further growth in the scope and functionality of the control room. They need to reflect the different levels of user, from the technically proficient to those who are less capable.”
Made simple
Ease of use has a vital role to play in an environment where important decisions need to be made rapidly. That’s a challenge, as Paul Spronk, director of EMEA sales, RGB Spectrum, points out. “Display wall controllers need to strike a balance between possessing
potential weakness, so RAID arrays are recommended. Dual network connectivity can be specified: in fact, almost any component in the system can be duplicated and will often be hot- swappable. The ultimate ‘belt and braces’ approach is, of course, to configure a complete, hot standby controller.
Key points
. Reliability, ease of use and flexibility/scalability are perceived to be the key characteristics of a display wall management system
. Single source solutions can be attractive in terms of completeness of integration and simplicity of support – but third-party wall management can bring important features and performance
. ‘Wintel’ solutions can be attractive in price/performance terms, with an extensive support infrastructure. Proponents of proprietary solutions claim better absolute performance, however, coupled with superior reliability
comprehensive functionality, yet being intuitive and easy to use, often by relatively untrained operators,” he says. “Beyond that, the controller needs to provide the highest possible quality graphics and video representation.” He too stresses the need for reliability. The growing list of highly desirable
attributes is added to by Barco’s market director for control rooms, Peter
Bussens. A control room visualisation system should facilitate choice – of what is seen and what is shared – as well as collaboration and control, he says. “It should also,” he continues, “be modular and upgradable to allow for future expansion, and it should take advantage of the existing infrastructure and communications standards to maximise return on investment.” Mark Schmidt, director of IT at
eyevis, notes the importance of leveraging open architectures in order to be able to integrate with other manufacturers’ offerings – such as those from Siemens, Bosch and Seetec. Choosing the right display wall
control management hardware and software will make a major contribution to whether the goals of an installation are achieved. But the questions arise: whose hardware? Whose software? What are the pros and cons of acquiring a complete solution from a single manufacturer – or of shopping around? Companies like Barco, Christie, eyevis and Mitsubishi are able to provide a complete package that includes screens and controllers. “Sourcing a display wall control management system from the screen vendor guarantees compatibility between the display controller and the display device,” says Bussens, “and avoids issues like resolution mismatch or synchronisation problems. We can also optimise the combination,
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