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Santa Barbara’s emergency operations centre gets video technology

UK company Electrosonic has provided extensive audio, video and data information support to the County of Santa Barbara’s new Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which houses a number of technology-enabled spaces designed to help the California county maintain a constant state of readiness. The new EOC facilitates the sharing of information from various internal and external sources, including news media, incident maps from geospatial services, live video streams from a county helicopter, and operational rep
October 9, 2012 Read time: 3 mins
UK company 6683 Electrosonic has provided extensive audio, video and data information support to the County of Santa Barbara’s new Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which houses a number of technology-enabled spaces designed to help the California county maintain a constant state of readiness.

The new EOC facilitates the sharing of information from various internal and external sources, including news media, incident maps from geospatial services, live video streams from a county helicopter, and operational reports. Having critical information displayed and shared, via large display screens, flat-panel monitors or video conferencing systems, improves management decisions.

A mobile tablet device operating on the building’s secured wireless network allows the EOC to control the majority of its systems with a graphically intuitive user control system interface. The tablet not only controls all AV components, displays throughout the EOC, but it more importantly provides the staff with complete control of the new system right at their fingertips, allowing them to focus more on making quick emergency response decisions.

Electrosonic installed  a range of systems in the EOC, including AV presentation technologies that can help meet an array of incident needs role in the incident management room; AV systems accommodating synchronous video conferencing and multimedia presentation in the management conference room and breakout room; a ceiling-mounted 4962 Mitsubishi video/data projector as the primary display and a wall-mounted NEC flat-panel to serve as a backdrop for press in the joint information centre; flat-panel display, wireless microphones, and stereo loudspeakers for the director’s office; and the staff break room was equipped with a single wall-mounted, HD flat-panel display with built-in TV tuner.

Electrosonic also supplied the media distribution system in the telecommunications room, allowing any source to be viewed from any location’s display or PC.  Video and audio signals are distributed from room to room and delivered to non PC-based display devices.

In addition, Electrosonic furnished the lobby with a single flat-panel display monitor with an embedded PC, which is connected to the building LAN and used for the creation and transmission of the signage content. In addition to being controlled by a mobile tablet like the rest of the systems in the EOC, control of the display can also be executed via an HTML page on a facility-provided PC.

Audio for the Incident Management Room, the Management Conference Room, the Operations Breakout room and the Joint Information Center is reinforced by a distributed system of ceiling-mounted loudspeakers.

“Santa Barbara County went from a 1,600 square-foot trailer with a projector and a small TV to a new 11,000 square-foot building powered in part by green energy,” says Electrosonic project manager Jeff Galato Sr.  “Fortunately, since we completed the project, the county has not had any incidents that required activating the Emergency Operations Center,” says Galato. “Through exercises and training, emergency management staff have used the system and found the ability to immediately share relevant information critical. We had a very good installation; the county staff was great to work with.”

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