Traffic Wales

Étude de cas

The Transport Directorate of the Welsh Assembly Government manages the trunk roads and motorways in Wales. It manages approximately 150 Km of motorway, 700 km of dual carriageway and 2000 km of trunk roads. The centres are fully manned and are equipped with CCTV, variable message sign systems (VMS), vehicle detection and data processing to manage the network and inform travelers using roadside signs, multimedia and the telephone.

High-end technology
The TMC includes Barco's latest technology pertaining to the visualisation of large quantities of video and data on a large overview display wall. This technology had a big impact on the design of the room. This was achieved by ensuring the control room layout was designed to meet the operational needs. Atkins, the Welsh Assembly Government and Barco investigated all areas, taking valuable input from supervisors and operators, plus other parties who would have an operational impact on the room, such as the Police, broadcasters, visitors, etc.

Improved efficiency
Traffic Wales operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and provides proactive incident and congestion monitoring to deliver accurate dynamic traffic information. The new Welsh Traffic Management Centre in Coryton, Cardiff became operational in June 2004, in synergy with The Welsh Assembly Government strategy for the provision of traveler information for Wales. The centre uses ITS to provide high-quality information and management services to travelers; this will enable improved efficiency and increased safety.

The Barco solution
Technology was a major consideration in the development of the TMC; the Barco OverView display wall was an integral part of the operation. The display wall offers key features such as dual lamps for redundancy, highresolution modules to display the video plus an Atkins-developed map, which gives a complete overview of the operational area. The display screens, which are a patented concept, have a gap of less than 0.4 mm, which gives a practically seamless view of applications on a 5.35 meter x 2.15 meter (5120 x 2048 resolution) display wall. Barco's Argus controller displays the TMC environment of 48 videos in real time with congestion maps, teletext, etc.

Uniquely, analogue and streaming video are displayed via the Barco universal decoder card. The Argus also interfaces with other third-party systems such as the Tyco front end used as the operator CCTV interface at the TMC. The control room not only caters for the continuous operations managing the trunk road network in south Wales, but also has to incorporate the facilities for the Police, broadcasters and media, which also had to be considered within the overall design. Furthermore, the need for future expansion was a major factor. The TMC also houses various other areas such as large conference rooms, dedicated Police offices, and accommodation for Traffic Wales (Atkins) engineering staff who provide support for the TMC and the roadside communications infrastructure. Some of these rooms also contain Barco's Solaris LC40 – a 40" LCD display with a built-in PC, so information can be sent directly to the various rooms via the network. Atkins introduced a number of new technologies into the TMC environment. These included direct connectivity to the Traffic Wales Gigabit Ethernet Wide Area Network, streaming video (MPEG-2) for CCTV pictures from the roadside cameras and a voiceover IP telephone system. The voiceover IP system is now being extended to the roadside and all the new technology is combined with the pre-existing IT infrastructure, which delivers real-time congestion maps and streaming CCTV via www.trafficwales.com.