Barco control room technology gives French police command centers a modernization boost

Control room upgrade for more efficiency

The technology in the above-mentioned command and information centers had reached its end of life. ANFSI, the digital agency of the Internal Security Forces, therefore wanted to upgrade its visualization and monitoring technology to today’s modern standards incrementally across all French departments. The goal was to speed up police interventions, make better use of the available resources, and make emergency responses more efficient. This also included making better use of the available camera feeds coming from local police departments.

More concretely, the command and information centers needed to be equipped with a high-performance video wall, where a team of operators could monitor a variety of sources on a 24/7 basis. The control room team also needed to be able to share information efficiently in- and outside of the control room with other stakeholders.

Flexible visualization in emergency and crisis room

After putting out a call for tender, ANFSI called upon the support of CS Group, an integrator and developer of mission-critical systems. CS Group proposed an integrated visualization solution based on Barco’s UniSee LCD video wall technology and TransForm N networked visualization platform.

Every command and information center has been designed to include a control room, where emergency calls are handled, and a crisis room, where multiple stakeholders can work together to make informed decisions on critical events, such as public demonstrations, strikes or incidents. In each of these rooms, operators are now relying on a UniSee video wall to display multiple sources in any configuration they want, and to interact with the display wall content. The TransForm N platform also allows them to distribute video wall content to any other networked display inside or outside of the control room.

Improving collaboration with multiple teams

The operator teams especially appreciate the variety of sources that can be displayed, thanks to the various encoders and decoders of the TransForm N platform: video feeds of city cameras, maps showing the location of response teams, call details, news channels, sources received from private citizens, and even camera footage coming from helicopters or drones.

New sources can also be added easily. All information can be distributed to other control rooms and locations. This should lead to more efficient decision-making and collaboration, and ultimately to greater security for intervention teams in the field.

The fact that sources can easily be shared is all the more important, since law enforcement in France is a matter of multiple different stakeholders, including municipal police, national police, gendarmerie, and public transport agents, and of many different directorates. Thanks to the efficient distribution of information inside and outside of the control room interventions can be managed more efficiently and the allocation of resources in the field can be optimized.

In 2019, CS Group was awarded the first contract to equip the police and gendarmerie command and information centers with Barco control room solutions. The agreement was renewed in 2023. The Ministry of the Interior aims to gradually equip the remaining sites with Barco's UniSee LCD video wall technology and the TransForm N network visualization platform.

CS Group, a subsidiary of the Sopra Steria Group, is an expert in the design, integration, deployment, and maintenance of critical systems for defense organizations, public security, and major industrial clients. In the field of protection and resilience of critical entities, CS Group deploys surveillance and site protection systems, combining its expertise and solutions in mission preparation, command and operation management, as well as crisis management.