Technology is ensuring 24/7 footage of the city’s transportation system.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), home to one of the largest Control Rooms in North America, wanted to incorporate a dependable video wall display for monitoring Toronto’s public transportation system. To do so, they turned to Advanced, a Canadian AV integrator, to envision and install an 80-inch Delta Displays rear-projection LED Cube video wall system that guarantees 24/7 footage of the city’s transportation system for more than 1.6 million people daily.
Switching out the TTC Control Room’s fifteen-year-old system presented several challenges. As Advanced co-president David Weatherhead explained, “The TTC’s Control Room oversees the safety of 460 million passengers annually. Utilizing dependable technology is essential in order to make sure everything runs smoothly.”
Decision Matrix
When selecting the ideal video wall for the TTC’s Control Room, Advanced knew it had to be dependable, low-maintenance, and easily serviceable. The Delta 80-inch rear-projection LED cube video wall embodies all of these factors; broken into different sections, each low-maintenance rear projection cube displays four separate camera feeds. Other cubes display the transit system and subway lines status allowing control room operators to make critical decisions. Each cube operates independently, so that if one has an issue, the rest of the videowall remains functional. The LED light source ensures no lamps need to be replaced over the life of the display, and since Delta is the world’s largest manufacturer of power supplies the power engine is extremely robust and durable.
“Most importantly, the videowall is easily field serviceable, as it provides rear access to the displays without affecting the image presented at the front. Therefore, we can change or repair a cube without affecting the rest of the videowall, which is extremely important in this type of operation,” Advanced vice president Mark McPherson stated.
Switching out the TTC Control Room’s fifteen-year-old system presented several challenges for Advanced. First, the videowall had to be updated in sections and matched precisely to the concave curvature of the wall, which required custom-tailored engineering. Second, Delta LED rear projection cubes are smaller than the previous systems’, so each new cube had to be custom matched with two sections flanking each side.
To install a videowall in a 24/7 mission-critical room, Advanced provided a temporary seamless NEC LCD ultra-narrow bezel video wall during the installation process so that TTC employees could continue to monitor Toronto’s public transport system at any given time.
In addition, Advanced technicians worked through the night to avoid busy transit times, such as Toronto’s rush hour. “Our integration staff was fully briefed on the TTC Control Room’s schedule and unique requirements.
All of this work was done in the wee hours of the morning,” McPherson added.
The Transit Control room oversees every vital Toronto Transit System operation. As the largest referrer to 911, Transit Control workers are responsible for maintaining order in an emergency. The room holds 98 employees, 22 per shift, working 24/7 to track the trains.
Equipment Focus
- Delta Displays 80-inch rear-projection LED Cube video wall system
- NEC LCD ultra-narrow bezel video wall
info
Advanced AV
Advanced-inc.com
Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)
TTC.ca
