Portugal · 2025
When Portugal’s leading water utility wanted to upgrade its aging control room, it wasn’t just about aesthetics. It was about ensuring continuity, security, and operational efficiency across more than 200 installations. With Barco CTRL and Barco UniSee, Águas do Douro e Paiva has built a modern nerve center that’s as resilient as the water infrastructure it monitors.
Het lijkt erop dat u geen cookies hebt geaccepteerd
Activeer prestatiecookies om deze video te bekijken.
Águas do Douro e Paiva (AdDP) is one of Portugal’s most important utility providers, responsible for water capture, treatment, and distribution in the northern region. The company serves over 1.6 million residents, operating an extensive network of water facilities and pumping stations. Its control room near Porto acts as the operational brain of this infrastructure.
Before 2020, AdDP operated its control room with aging equipment in a circular layout. Two operators worked with up to 17 computers, each system with its own keyboard and mouse. This setup was not only cumbersome and inefficient but also prone to heat, noise, and operational fragmentation. The setup also made it difficult to coordinate between systems or maintain a consistent overview of all critical sites. When systems went down or connections failed, it took too long to diagnose and respond.
The company needed a modern, centralized control room that could serve as the operational heart of its vast infrastructure. It required an intuitive interface that would allow operators to work more efficiently and effectively. Secure and resilient access to virtualized systems was essential to ensure continuity and data protection. Finally, the solution had to be scalable, allowing the company to expand and adapt the infrastructure as operational needs evolved.
AdDP partnered with Casa Serras, a Portuguese system integrator specializing in turnkey control room projects and long-standing Barco partner, to completely redesign the control room from the ground up. Barco CTRL was selected as the centerpiece of the new setup.
The Barco CTRL control room software platform provides secure, scalable, and intuitive visualization and source management across complex environments. Combined with a Barco UniSee video wall, the solution allows operators to control and monitor all systems from a single, integrated platform, with just one keyboard and mouse.
“We chose Barco CTRL because it met all our technical requirements out of the box,” says Carlos Fernandes, CISO at AdDP and project lead. “It’s secure, scalable, and remarkably easy to use. For our operators, it was like stepping into the future.”
Operators quickly embraced the new system. Within just eight hours of training, they were up and running, using Barco CTRL to manage the full suite of SCADA systems, video feeds, and critical infrastructure applications. “One of our operators even got emotional,” says Carlos Fernandes. “He said, ‘I used to work with 12 mice and 12 keyboards. Now I use one of each. That says it all.’”
AdDP’s infrastructure includes over 200 sites, with 87 water treatment installations. With such infrastructure, AdDP insisted on a system that can grow as their operations expand. With Barco CTRL, they can scale seamlessly. Whether it’s adding new data sources, operators, or entire workflows, the system is future-proof. “In the future, we plan to integrate network operations and cybersecurity functions directly into the control room. With Barco CTRL, we know that’s technically feasible without changing the core platform,” says Carlos Fernandes.
Information security was a top priority. Barco CTRL’s role-based access, isolated networks, and support for secure remote management gave AdDP the confidence to migrate mission-critical operations into the new system. “Our entire Barco setup is isolated in a secure technical space below the control room,” says Fernandes. “That gives us total control over data flow, access, and redundancy.”
The new control room went live in October 2024 and has already proven to be resilient under pressure. During a major power outage that hit both Spain and Portugal, AdDP’s control room stayed fully operational. All systems remained online, and operators were able to continue monitoring the network without interruption.
“We were put to the test, and the system passed with flying colors,” says Carlos Fernandes. “Access to the systems, visualization, redundancy, everything worked.”
The project was delivered in close collaboration between AdDP, Casa Serras, and Barco. Casa Serras handled the full design and implementation, from cabling and furniture to system integration and testing.
The control room will also be a platform for future innovation, including the integration of AI-driven analytics and cybersecurity monitoring. Carlos Fernandes: “We’ve built a foundation of cutting-edge infrastructure, and Barco CTRL is what allows us to see and manage it all.”
