This picture was taken from the recently completed Pisa terminal, which manages the track on the northwestern coast of Italy, from Genoa to Rome.
Ansaldo Signal NV Group (The Netherlands), which retains 13% of the world market for train signaling and automatic traffic control recently won a public tender drawn up by Italfer (Italian Railways) for the implementation of six of the Centralized Traffic Controls or CTCs to be built at the most important train junctions on the Italian peninsula; of which the Pisa terminal is one.
Ansaldo partnered with Christie, who worked with Ansaldo to provide, install and support the display technologies integral to these CTCs.
In the case of Pisa, this means managing the track and controlling train traffic along the eastern coast of Italy, from Genoa in the north to Maccarese, a few kilometers north of Rome in the south, about 450km in total.
Since the motorway system in this area is not as developed as it is in the central and eastern vertical of Italy, train traffic plays an essential role in support of commerce and tourism.
Mr. Bruno Ferrero, Ansaldo's Projects Manager for the Traffic Control Room in Pisa, was responsible for ensuring Ansaldo's bid met the four key requirements set by Italfer for the CTCs:
- Circulation (Remote Traffic Control and regulation)
- Remote Diagnostics and Service
- Information to the Public
- Remote Security and Emergency Control
A display wall illustrates the traffic situation in the area, created using twenty-six DLV1280 DX projection systems. These systems project onto 26 DNP high-contrast / hi-gain screens, each 2m x 1.5m in size and each displaying 1,310,720 pixels of information (1280 x 1024) at more than 1500 ANSl lumens of brightness.
Operators work in 8-hour shifts, 24 hours a day, making this command and control installation truly 24:7 mission critical.
The display wall serves the function of giving all operators and supervisors a general view of the whole traffic situation along the area interested.
Each operator has the control of a specific area represented by the display wall. If the operator needs to change the itinerary of one of the trains present in his/her area, the operator 'zooms' in on the area through his computer, using the tools at his disposal on his desktop.
All the modifications he makes are represented on the display wall for the other operators and the supervisors to see and make their choices accordingly.
The control room in PISA monitors an average of 150 trains every day of the year. The number of passengers benefiting from the work done in Pisa every year -traffic regulation, security, service, information to the public and emergencies- varies between 5,475,000 and 7,300,000, about 15-20,000 passengers per day.
Bruno Ferrero, Ansaldo's Project manager for the Pisa room, said: "Traditionally these kind of display walls were built using LEDs. Obviously this system was not very practical because, in the event of a change in the configuration, an entire part of the wall had to be substituted. The first requirement, therefore, was flexibility for the configuration. Digital projections allow this flexibility.
Also, the rear projection represents an important technological innovation for the customer and was specifically requested by the customer. I'm very happy with this result. Christie Digital Systems' DLV1280 DX serves all these requirements in the most satisfactory way."