Boston is not only the birthplace of democracy and freedom, but also the origin of America’s mass transportation system. The Hub’s transit system is the oldest and fourth largest in the nation, tracing its history from ferries and horse cars, to trolleys and North America’s fi rst subway. Always a champion of the latest mass transit technologies, it’s only fi tting that the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority chose to drive the next level of evolution with a new networked visualization solution from Barco implemented by Vistacom.

See more, more clearly

Upon receiving a $6 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security to renovate its Operations Control Center, MBTA honed in on its most critical need: display information from various networks and locations in a coherent, quickly actionable manner. “MBTA needed to harness many types of data, including news, weather and traffi c reports, in a meaningful way to make comprehensive assessments of unfolding situations,” explains Jim Ferlino, principal at Vistacom, the Allentown, PA-based AV systems integrator.

A multi-faceted, big picture

Vistacom created a +100-foot canvas comprising 60 Barco rear projection LED modules, creating a full-featured visual collaboration wall. Now, MBTA can display accurate, sharp imagery from up to 100 channels of streaming video, signifi cantly enhancing situational awareness of the transportation network.

Effortless collaboration

Barco’s TransForm N processing nodes and CMS-200 Control Room Management Suite software combine to facilitate organization, control and sharing of data and video among the team to enhance decision-making. The Sidebar application expedites searches and browsing, confi guring images via a drag-and-drop motion, while the Perspectives capability enables operators to build scenes featuring multiple sources simultaneously.

The wall is a mix of traditional rail control (SCADA) plus security feeds from fi ve network video recorder (NVR) platforms. The VidSys Physical Security Information Management (PSIM) software runs on top of other software and is integrated via the Barco CMS API plugin to control content on the wall.

The solution functions like a node on the control room LAN, connecting to other agencies and locations via a comprehensive WAN. “The Barco solution acts as a versatile switch so we can quickly and easily pull up 10,000 native camera feeds,” says Dan Gundry, Vistacom’s Control Room Team Specialist. The result: greater control, visibility, and smoother operations for MBTA and its customers.