Datapath Looks to the Heavens

It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to work with a world-renowned US spaceport, so when AV-Worx of West Palm Beach, Florida asked Datapath to help them with a video wall project, well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess their response.

This premier multi-user spaceport has over 90 private-sector partners and around 250 partnership agreements. Thanks to the presence of so many commercial companies, a new era of space exploration is under way. The spaceport is home to a host of research and development facilities. It is in such installations where the government and commercial space ventures look for innovative solutions for working and living on the surfaces of the Moon and other bodies in our solar system. In short, the campus is constantly bustling, and keeping the whole thing running smoothly is a full-time job.

Spaceport control room

The complex activities of the 219 square mile spaceport and its vast array of campus utilities are monitored from the control room, a major feature of which is the 10 x 4 LCD video wall from Christie Digital. AV-Worx is responsible for the slick and efficient running of the video wall as well as a myriad of other systems. The integrator, having concluded that the video wall’s existing processor and operating system no longer met government requirements, sought a replacement.

High performance and reliability

Datapath was chosen to provide the operating system. In line with government demands, this would be far superior to previous equipment and come with more robust credentials and a warranty to ensure reliability, flexibility, and security.

AV-Worx selected Datapath’s VSN1182-RPSU video controller along with multiple Datapath Image graphics cards. This video controller is part of Datapath’s VSN11 series, which was designed for environments where high performance and reliability are crucial. Think mission control rooms, military installations, logistic operations and virtually any other command and control application. Besides increased memory, the latest processors, and enhanced performance, VSN systems are renowned for their cool and quiet running.

Since the VSN range has been developed to support Image graphics and decoding cards, both physical and IP video sources can be displayed on medium and large-scale video walls. As a result, operators can view any source on single or multi-screen layouts.

Data visualisation

This was to be a unique control room video wall controller deployment making maximum use of Primate Technologies’ real-time control room data visualisation software. This technology gives control room operatives the real-time information they need to keep abreast of emerging conditions and act appropriately and immediately. As a low CPU overhead application, Primate’s software runs natively on the Datapath controller creating a single window of content across the entire video wall.

Meticulous planning

The control room works to a tight schedule, responsible as it is for managing the complex activities of public and private customers. This meant that the installation would have to take place in next to no time. To minimise disruption, AV-Worx, Datapath, and Primate carried out meticulous planning and testing before installation day.

Johannes A. Csonka, solution specialist at AV-Worx recalls when everything took shape. “After 9 months of planning and testing the hardware systems to be installed in the launch control centre, it was all systems go for the installation to commence. In conjunction with Datapath, and Primate Technologies, our execution plan went flawlessly, and the system installation was completed successfully as planned.”

Knowledge and experience

Csonka is keen to praise Datapath for its vital role. “Due to the complexity of this system and the need for reliability, AV-Worx selected Datapath for the video wall processing. Datapath’s knowledge and experience in working with complex hardware for video wall processing is the reason they were chosen for our project. From start to finish it was a pleasure working with the entire team at Datapath.”

Unsurpassed visualisation experience

The project was finished without a hiccup in March 2021. Upon completion, the control room had a sparkling new video processor, and the latest graphics cards installed om the Datapath VSN chassis. The control room now enjoys an unsurpassed visualisation experience with the added benefits of flexibility, security, and incredible reliability.

When asked to comment on the uniqueness of the installation, Datapath’s senior sales manager Greg Dieckhaus said, “Datapath hardware and software is used in many of the most secure control rooms in the world. This unique application, where our VSN processing technology works in synergy with third party control software, demonstrates how Datapath products can work in reliable harmony for a successful solution.”