09/02/2004

PROJECTS CARRIED OUT BY APLEIN INGENIEROS, S.A. CONTROL CENTER OF THE BARCELONA PORT AUTHORITY


The Barcelona Port Authority has redesigned the Control Centre situated in the premises of the Port Police and annexed to the A.S.T.A. building. The redesign plan has included the enlargement of this centre and equipping it with a new system of multimedia presentation that has been supplied and installed by APLEIN INGENIEROS, S.A.

We interviewed Mr. Francesc Bonada, Telecommunications Manager of the Barcelona Port Authority.

What functions do the Port Police services carry out in the control room?

The function of the port police is to safeguard the security of the port enclosure in the three aspects of port commerce, logistics and the public.

The operating officers are the receivers of all the information being generated by harbour operations, which comes from the agents stationed in the different services, from other departments of the Barcelona Port Authority, from other organisms, from the users of the port services and from the public in general.

This information is channelled to the pertinent services according to established procedures, be this in the actual policing sector, or for administration or maintenance.
It is important to highlight the role played by the officers in the control centre in emergency operations and accidents in order to speed up actuations, alert the medical services, the fire brigade, and the people and institutions defined in the internal and external emergency plans of the port.

The operators also monitor the alarm incidents produced by intrusion or fire in buildings, marine stations, and dependencies of the B. P. A., as well as managing the audio and video aspects of telephone and radio communications, and of course of the surveillance by the camera system of the most important points in the day-to-day operations, and as a logistical tool for regulating heavy traffic in the service area and in the public area by detecting any incident that occurs.

All this implies working closely with the telecommunications department.

What benefits has the installation of the video projection wall delivered by APLEIN INGENIEROS, S.A. signified in the control, supervision and surveillance functions?

First of all working in the Windows environment, with the possibility of having multiple applications open and being able to observe them as a whole, means that the attention required is less stressful and therefore the performance of the operating officers is enhanced, particularly in the system of TV cameras and its logistical administration for both our analogue and digital recordings.

This port authority has an application called G. I. S. which, to describe it in a few words, is like a live map in which the security elements of the port appear, the signalling and operation of each ship as well as its operational point and its use on the wall screen greatly improves in definition the view from a P.C., providing a very effective panorama from the same.

Does the present ergonomics of the room favour operability in it?

The ergonomics of the present room has improved enormously with respect to a conventional room, like the one we had before. The adaptation of the technical elements to the human operator with their substantial improvement has reduced stress-provoking effects on the operating officers in the aspect of spatial amplitude and centralized scope of the means.

What improvements has the direct projection system signified for the crisis room?

The answer is similar to that for the wall screen. It is very positive and practical to have to hand the possibility of working with P.C., with both analogue and digital video apparatus, and displaying the recordings that are being made at the moment.
This system is highly operative, both in the preventive working sessions and in those that take place when managing a determined emergency.


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