Large surface LED: Everything under control with Sharp/NEC
As threats to our safety and security become increasingly prevalent, maintaining 24/7 surveillance and the means to immediately trigger a response should an incident occur becomes ever more critical. The control room is the hub from which to take command of the situation, and it must be fed with all available information in order to action an appropriate and timely response.
Sharp/NEC’s Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing at the LED Solutions Centre, Andreas Brockschmidt, understands the critical nature of the control room environment. In this blog, he explains the importance of reliability and resilience, the benefits of LED technology, and why partnering with Sharp/NEC ensures business-critical performance and a low total cost of ownership.
Learn more about the expertise of our LED Solutions Centre team.
What is a typical control room?
There is no one ‘typical’ control room. Almost every industry has some kind of control room. You might immediately think of emergency response centres and utility & energy operations, but even retail malls and universities have control rooms to manage their multi-location estates and monitor CCTV. It may be as simple as a single user directing operations locally or hundreds of staff managing a complex multifaced organisation. Whatever the role or business, there is some form of centralised control ensuring safe and efficient operations.
The role of the control room may include these processes:
- Business and Process Operation
- Monitoring and Surveillance
- Data Monitoring
- Remote Control and Live Operations
- Training, Simulation and Augmented Reality
A recent Sharp/NEC LED installation for the Utah Department of Transport is responsible for maintaining nearly 10,000 km of road network.
Visualisation is the essential element
What is common across all these scenarios is the need for visualisation. From a single camera feed to multiple and varied data sources, all this information needs to be instantly available to the operator to enable them to make informed and timely decisions. Visualisation is the essential element for human perception and the visual representation and management of information is vital in maintaining smooth operations in the control room. Typically, single workspaces allow the operator or operators to view operational detail, whilst a larger screen viewable by everyone supports mutual situational awareness.
Go to our Control Room webpages for more information about various control room set-ups.
Why dvLED technology is ideal for large surface visualisation
dvLED technology is proving to be an increasingly popular choice for large surface visualisation in control rooms. As the price falls and finer pitch solutions compete with the detail and contrast levels achieved by more traditional LCD video walls, dvLED technology is offering compelling benefits.
Configured from multiple modules, dvLED is highly versatile, scalable to any size and shape to fill the available space, even curved to gain the best possible viewing angle for all operators – with no distracting bezels to interrupt the overall picture. dvLED technology presents high resolution content in eye pleasing brightness according to ambient conditions and offers an impressively long operational life and MTTR (mean time to repair) ensuring continuous peak performance and sustainable efficiency.
Go to our LED webpages to learn more about our wide range of bundle and customisable dvLED solutions
Essential prerequisites of a successful outcome
Control room technology should be there to support the user; it should not dictate how the user operates. It is vital that the integrator carefully listens, understands and correctly interprets the needs of the operator, to ascertain how he would react in certain circumstances, both in normal and under high stress conditions. Every situation is different, there is no common standard setup for control rooms which leads to a high level of customisation per project, it’s a complex market. Partnering with an experienced provider and maintaining flexibility to adapt to changing needs will result in a perfect-fit solution.
No compromise to safety and security
Critical infrastructure and sensitive application areas demand the highest security and failsafe reliability. For emergency services, defence operations, transportation and utility sectors, any interruption to control room operations could be life threatening. From monitoring road and rail networks to air traffic control, and safeguarding against potential threats, there can be no compromise to public safety and security.
Sharp/NEC’s LCD and LED solutions feature aluminium housing
Sharp/NEC’s LCD and LED solutions feature aluminium housing; metal is both heat resistant and non-flammable ensuring long lasting visual performance and safety. It is also effective in blocking electromagnetic and radio frequency interference. For busy public spaces such as transport terminals, it is vital to limit electromagnetic interference which can compromise wireless and mobile data connections and, crucially, air traffic control operations. The Sharp/NEC B Series is fully compliant to EMC Class B causing no interference for screen sizes up to 40 m².
With built-in data and power redundancy, Sharp/NEC control room solutions are purpose-designed with resilience against failure, trusted to safeguard data security and business continuity in uncompromising 24/7 environments.
Learn more about the needs of the uncompromising transportation sector.
Sharp/NEC is an experienced technology partner
Sharp/NEC is the only visual solutions supplier that can offer all the main visualisation technologies, including dvLED surfaces, passive and interactive LCD large format and video wall displays, projection and desktop monitors, alongside associated hardware and software solutions. Through our partnership with Hiperwall, leading provider of network-based videowall control systems, a control room solution from Sharp/NEC offers unlimited flexibility, endlessly adaptable as needs evolve.
Uniquely, this means our customers are assured of the perfect fit solution to their specific needs, not only in the control room but across their entire estate, delivering the best possible ROI today, and in the future.
Learn more about the benefits of Hiperwall’s IP-based distributed visualisation architecture.
We can prove it
Sharp/NEC is a trusted supplier for the most demanding 24/7 applications with our class-leading, purpose-designed visual technology. dvLED solutions have more recently become a key component in many high secure systems providing extra-large surface visualisation in the energy, oil and telecommunications sectors, as well as police and military facilities in Germany, France, the USA, Saudia Arabia and Egypt.
Our most recent installations by Sharp/NEC’s expert LED Solutions Centre team include:
- A fully redundant LED-FA009i2 LED display with a vast 38m² curved surface facilitating permanent surveillance in the control room of a finance company. The 0.9mm pixel pitch display measures 18m long by 2m high with content managed by Hiperwall.
- Several curved LED displays for controls rooms in the Middle East including a 30m by 6m 1.5mm pixel pitch LED-FE015i2 surface in the Network Operations Centre of a telecoms company based in Riyadh, reported to be one of the largest LED control room displays in the world. Read more.
- Monitoring Europe’s busiest railway network, the RER Line A, Paris transport operator RATP and national railway SNCF in France benefit from a 18m by 2m 0.9mm pixel pitch LED-FA009i surface delivering a total resolution of 19,200 x 2,160. The fully redundant LED solution installed by our partner AGELEC and managed by their own video controller AGCwall is reported to be the largest LED screen installed in a European control room.
Photo credit: AGELEC
- Another traffic control room, in the USA, features three Sharp/NEC LED walls. Two NEC LED-FA012i2-110 LED displays with 110-inch diagonal and a 25m² NEC LED-FA012i2 LED display for the main overview wall. The Utah Department of Transportation is responsible for monitoring and maintaining nearly 10,000 km of roads and highways in the state of Utah. Read more.
