printer friendly version

Location-free control rooms

Shortly after launching its first South African office, Christie has announced the launch of Christie Phoenix, an open content management system designed specifically for control room applications. Christie specialises in command and control projection display and visualisation solutions, and the company says Phoenix redefines content management for the modern control room.

David Griffiths

David Griffiths, market development manager, control rooms, EMEA, at Christie explains that the company has been involved in developing control room solutions for over 20 years and has a large range of display solutions, including 55-inch, narrow bezel LED screens. Although the company has only now launched its Johannesburg office, it has done business with some of the largest South African organisations, including SITA, SAPS, Eskom, MTN and others.

Phoenix has been designed as a network streaming solution that allows users to seamlessly access and control information, in virtually any location to collaborate and generate fast and accurate decisions in the most critical situations. It not only allows for fast display of video streams on video walls, but also to share images between walls and user devices with simplicity in a one-to-many approach.

The Christie Phoenix node is a 19-inch rack mount unit that comes as standard with DVI, KVM, and audio input and output connectors, all of which can be used simultaneously. A Phoenix node can encode up to two and decode up to 12 high definition signals.

Griffiths says Phoenix is the ideal solution for the fast-paced command and control centres with highly mobile and dispersed workforces such as public utilities, government, security and surveillance, transportation and telecommunications, allowing them to confidently make faster and more accurate life-critical decisions in the most challenging environments.

Based on a single streaming appliance, the Phoenix node and Christie’s PC user software, Phoenix systems are simple and cost effective to configure, deploy and manage, simultaneously, all from one box. To facilitate the flexibility and scalability required in today’s control rooms, Phoenix nodes can be combined to create synchronised display walls of virtually any size. Alternatively, it can be used as a desktop processor to augment a single user’s operating environment.

Multiple Phoenix nodes can be combined and synchronised to create a display wall of up to 128 outputs. Inputs, each up to 1920 by 1080 pixel resolution, are encoded and placed on the network, while simultaneously allowing keyboard and mouse (KVM) control of those inputs over the network.

Network friendly

The company’s software provides access and control of Phoenix video streams anywhere a user can connect to the network. As a network streaming device, Phoenix nodes are compatible with the majority of existing network cameras and surveillance systems, as well as a number of third-party video encoders.

Griffiths adds that the technology can receive any H.264 stream and incorporate it into the control display. H.264 was chosen because it has become a standard in the security industry and it offers good compression ratios. A video stream on any standard network will be able to link to the Christie environment as a source, allowing operators to easily manage the streams and provide alerts to the appropriate people. In future this capability will be extended to mobile devices to allow streaming to specified smartphones if required.

“Christie Phoenix opens a broad new range of options for the AV designer because it embraces the modern, mobile age of communication by breaking through the physical walls of the control room to encompass a global workplace,” says David Griffiths, senior director of Collaborative Visual Solutions at Christie. “It redefines what a control room visualisation system can be. Whether used by multiple co-located participants, single offices or in the field through mobile technology, Christie Phoenix connects them all, giving them complete access and control of audio-visual content and data.”

Open and user friendly

Griffiths says the Phoenix system was developed in response to customer demand for open systems. Clients no longer wish to be stuck with proprietary solutions that lock them to a single supplier, but want to be able to integrate existing assets into their control room scenarios. This enhances the flexibility of the system and allows developers to integrate third-party systems, such as management platforms, with Phoenix via the company’s APIs.

The desktop software included with Christie Phoenix features an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that can manage content on multiple display walls simultaneously. It can also display content locally on a user’s desktop while sharing content with other users across the network, all of whom can view and control the content. For AV designers, it offers flexibility, replacing complex hardware networks with a simple network overlay. Expansion is as simple as hooking up another Christie Phoenix unit, and repair is as simple as removing and replacing the unit.

“Life-critical decisions are made at the speed of information,” says Griffiths. “When events are unfolding rapidly, the ability of decision-makers and the emergency services to see, manipulate, share, and display critical information from virtually anywhere can literally be the difference between life and death. With Christie Phoenix, they can assess, contain, and resolve crises faster than ever before!”

More information on Phoenix can be found at: www.christiephoenixnet.com

Christie Interactivity Kit

Christie has announced that the Christie Interactivity Kit is now shipping. Powered by ShadowSense technology, the Christie Interactivity Kit is a distinctive solution for adding multi-touch interactivity to any digital display.

Designed in pieces that fit around Christie MicroTiles, the Interactivity Kit can be configured into 84 different sizes. They can accommodate practically any large format display up to 21,4 feet wide and 6 feet high, or a Christie MicroTiles array measuring up to 16-units wide by 6-units tall.

The easy-to-use, field-installable kits simply attach around the display wall perimeter and plug into a computer USB port without the need for drivers. Windows 7 recognises the Christie Interactivity Kit as a multi-touch device automatically and no manual calibration of sensors or cameras is required. Using Baanto ShadowSense technology, the Interactivity Kit offers excellent performance with high touch accuracy and fast response times that support up to 18 touches on a large-format display.

“Many large-format touch technologies struggle with touch accuracy and response time, especially with multi-touch,” explains Richard Heslett, senior product manager, Business Products, Christie. “Typically you have to manually position and calibrate cameras, and install special drivers or software that must be running on the computer in order for the system to work.”

Christie’s Interactivity Kit solves this problem by detecting the video wall’s size and configuration, and simply connecting to the computer’s USB port. When used with Windows 7, which offers native support for multi-touch, the Interactivity Kit is automatically recognised as a multi-touch device.

Share this article:

Further reading: