Premise
Autostrade Tech, the technological spin-off of the Atlantia Group (to which Autostrade per l’Italia belongs) has inherited all the know-how developed by the parent company in research and development and in the integration of hardware and software systems.
Autostrade Tech’s role is divided into three main functions: technology provider, system integrator and service provider.
In this case study we will talk about the technology that Autostrade Tech supplies to Autostrade per l’Italia on the nine control rooms scattered throughout the country, to which is added the multimedia center in Rome.
These control rooms, recently renovated, were built with NEC MultiSync XUNS series monitors, in videowall configuration; AnyWall system software was developed and engineered by Crisma Security.
The project required the adoption of a common user interface, studied in detail, to enable all the operators of the various control rooms to monitor traffic on the roads. Specifically: the entire network under concession to Autostrade per l’Italia, the Italian section of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, the Valle d’Aosta motorway junction, the Naples ring road, the Autostrade Sud company and the Tyrrhenian motorway company, for a total of 3,020 km, 217 service areas, 15 regions and 60 Italian provinces.
Moreno Bacchi, Head of Traffic Systems, Autostrade Tech, Primo Ruben Di Natale, Autostrade per l’Italia, Information and Traffic Control Coordinator of Section II, Alessandro Paperini, Software architect, Crisma Security, tell us more.
The challenge: reliability and robustness of the monitors, visual comfort
The management and monitoring of the motorway network is carried out in the 9 control rooms built by Autostrade Tech, where 150 specialized operators work 24 hours a day.
“Our challenge – explains Dr. Moreno Bacchi, Autostrade Tech, systems and traffic manager – was to engineer and homogenize the control rooms to give the operators who work there the possibility to immediately view what is happening both in the particularly busy motorway sections but also in areas where, for example, an accident or a broken vehicle has occurred. When an event occurs, an alarm arrives in the control room coming either from the automatic systems (AID) or from the roads or from external customers and the operator is activated. The images of the criticality are promptly brought to the attention of the staff. It is possible to enlarge the image according to its importance because the display flexibility is total ».
Next generation intelligent video walls
AnyWall is able to easily manage the displacement of contents on the monitors of a Control Room by organizing the layout in the best possible way, amplifying the ability to analyze the situation and allowing more informed and aware decisions .
The images are transmitted by the thousands of cameras installed along the entire motorway network, located in the areas where it is necessary to keep the situation under control, including those sections that over time have proved to be the most critical.
As well as the displays, the software is also crucial to raise the productivity of the operators, to put them in a position to work better and to offer a more up-to-date and punctual service.
