Since last year, the Fire Station in Bonn, Germany, has a new center for emergency call reception and coordination of operations within the city area, consisting of a new integrated control room with adjacent command center The construction, arranged by WTG Leitstellentechnik, provides the fire crews with additional capabilities thanks to modernized technology and increased capacity.

Emergency calls can now be received and operations can be coordinated at up to eight workstations in the control center operations room. In addition, a further 16 additional reception stations can be accessed to deal with large-scale emergencies if required. Current daily and operational information as well as overview maps are displayed on a video wall installation consisting of a 2x3 arrangement of EC-67-LHD-CP rear projection cubes by eyevis, flanked by four of the manufacturer's EYE-LCD-4200-24NB LCDs on each side. A high-performance IP network was installed for signal transmission which, together with a netPIX graphic controller, offers flexible access to the more than 200 surveillance cameras of the public transport network and the city tunnel in Bonn-Bad Godesberg. Integration of an overview map of the city area is currently being planned.

The new control center has been in operation since April 2013. It had become necessary after the old control center, which had grown historically over the course of 40 years, had been unable to fulfill the current requirements. "The aim of the build was to create a constructional and technical infrastructure that meets the current requirements and at the same time can be flexibly extended for future enhancements", explains Marcus Hinz, head of the fire station Equipment and Technology department. This has been achieved with the video wall installation and flexible signal input over a standard IP network.

From Me To You
The eyevis displays and rear projection cubes give reliable around-the-clock visualization of all necessary data. The netPIX graphic controller together with the eyeCON control software enable flexible scaling and distribution of all video sources onto the video wall. This provides all involved persons with a situation map at times, regardless of their location.

The operations room staff are able to control the three further displays and two projectors inside the command center and feed them with content from the control center operation room. The screen content of workstation computers can be directly transmitted to video walls and displays using an integrated capture facility. For large-scale facilities, information from the command center can also be integrated into the situation map. The laptops of the individual staff members are therefore equipped with an eyeCON Client and registered as sources in the system. In this way, the screen content of laptops can be directly transmitted to projectors and individual displays inside the command center

Immediate Backup
The modernized technology of the new control center not only extends the capabilities of operation control but also the cooperation with connected facilities of the city and the adjoining Rhein-Sieg area. The staff of the control center is in charge of tunnel surveillance and traffic routing of the city tunnel during the night hours and at weekends. Visualization of the cameras inside the tunnel is managed by the multimedia platform. Thanks to upgraded radio and emergency call reception technology and the new operation control system, closer cooperation with the control center of the Rhein-Sieg area is now possible. Both control centers are spatially and organizationally separate, but in the new system are able to access the same information in real time. In this way each of the two control centers serves as a replacement for the other in case of failure and is able to plan operational resources on the other's behalf.

Further functionality being developed is now shortly before introduction: "One criterion for the size of the chosen video wall was that the visualization of the city map of Bonn should be of a sufficient size and with enough details", Marcus Hinz explains. All locations of operational resources should be displayed in real time. In addition, traffic route surveillance by the civil engineering department with its visualization of traffic route situations of all the streets in Bonn should also be integrated. "We are planning the further development of the operation center and want to integrate on-site operation control into the system", emphasizes Marcus Hinz.