A newly deployed Matrox and AGELEC video wall solution is a central feature of the French National Railway Company’s (SNCF) new operational center at Lyon-Part-Dieu station. The operational center there includes two control rooms that are purpose-built for 24/7 site management and customer support.
According to Manuel Amenedo, project director at SNCF’s Auvergne Rhône Alpes Regional Station Management Team, the operational center (COEG) plays a vital role in the SNCF’s daily operations. “The head of the COEG translates railway language to the passengers in the station,” he said.
Field-Proven Video Wall Solution
The SNCF was looking to modernize the Lyon-Part-Dieu station’s operational center for a few reasons. The first goal was to ensure real-time display information is transmitted to passengers at the station, especially in disrupted periods. Second, the update supports COEG in becoming the station control center with the conductor present in the station.
The Lyon-Part-Dieu station operational center would therefore need to be equipped with a high-density capture and output video wall solution that could provide reliable passenger information through real-time, high-quality display. Already having had a positive outcome with the AGELEC AGCWall video wall solution—controller systems featuring Matrox capture and IP encode/decode cards and multidisplay graphics boards—SCNF chose to incorporate these technologies into the Lyon-Part-Dieu installation.
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“The combination of Matrox and AGELEC video wall technologies has proven itself in SNCF’s demanding 24/7 environments,” said Guillaume Guerin, CEO of SNCF. “We have already deployed 20 of these robust, reliable systems throughout the network, and our operators have noticed enhanced decision-making and information-sharing abilities thanks to the high-performance video walls in each control room installation.”
Easy Train and Passenger Flow Management
In the primary control room, an AGCWall controller equipped with Matrox Mura IPX capture cards and Matrox multidisplay graphics boards captures and displays 14 HDMI video feeds across a 10x2 video wall with 49-inch screens. This video wall configuration gives operators access to comprehensive information about train departures, arrivals, and connections. In the secondary control room, the SCNF uses a second Matrox-powered AGCWall controller to capture seven HDMI video feeds for display on a 3x2 video wall configuration with 40-inch screens.
With the flexible Matrox-AGELEC solution, SNCF is able to distribute the sources of information in each space. Thanks to scenario recording that corresponds to specific railway problems that may occur, SNCF is able to ensure the most relevant information is displayed in each scenario. Additionally, AGELEC’s AGCWEB software enables SNCF to disseminate information within its COEG.
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Maximizing Efficiency While Minimizing Costs
Matrox video wall cards enabled the rapid installation of the AGCWall video wall solution for both Lyon-Part-Dieu station control rooms. The ability of Matrox’s video wall technology to capture multiple video sources while driving multiple, high-quality video displays allowed SNCF to achieve fast display of simultaneous, easy-to-read content from all available data points—all of which is critical to the around-the-clock monitoring and management of the Lyon-Part-Dieu railway station.
“The Lyon-Part-Dieu operational center has seen several key operational improvements since deploying the Matrox and AGELEC video wall solution,’ said Amenedo. “The video walls play an integral part in managing communication between carriers and station managers, and minimizing delays caused by service disruptions.”
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