Colorado State Emergency Operations Center Achieves Real-Time Disaster Monitoring with Video Walls

The center can swiftly respond to hazardous incidents throughout the state thanks to their ability to display a wide variety of information.

When it comes to responding in a swift and unfailing manner, the Colorado State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) realizes the stakes are high. It is the central hub for all tribal, local, state and federal agencies to coordinate responses to hazard events, incidents and disasters throughout the state. Additionally, a steadfast rise in the volume of information from various outlets has made it necessary for the SEOC to monitor many different sources simultaneously.

Operations Section Chief Chris Sorensen and his team dealt for years with closeout equipment installed when the organization subleased the building that houses the SEOC. By 2014, much of the equipment was either non-functional or faced a dwindling life span. Additionally, the former setup obstructed the view of some team members in the emergency operations center space. Visibility issues extended to the projected images, which were not bright enough for team members to view.

Ed Kern, Director of Installations at CCS Presentation Systems, oversaw the process of selecting equipment for the SEOC’s upgrade. CCS recommended NEC Display Solutions products because it found the displays easy to install and calibrate. Sorensen and his team agreed readily, based on NEC’s stellar reputation and the ultra-narrow bezels featured on its X464UN-2 displays, which were an important consideration for the video walls it envisioned.

“We worked together with the SEOC electricians, the IT department, management and facilities staff to execute the installation in a timely manner. Everyone jumped through hoops to make it happen. NEC was also extremely helpful,” Kern said, adding, “Our contact, Eric Fatovic, was stellar in reserving product for the task, as we had no room for error in delivery. He also ensured that NEC would ship the displays to us in a timely fashion, which they executed successfully. Without NEC’s support, we could not have made that commitment to the state.”

In June 2014, CCS installed a total of 45 monitors to create two video walls. The larger wall in the emergency operations center space is a 12 X 3 and consists of 36 monitors, while the smaller configuration in the policy room is a 3 X 3 and consists of nine monitors.

The video walls have become an integral part of the operations of the SEOC. The state holds meetings and trainings at the SEOC facilities on a regular basis, using the video wall as a display in those scenarios. The video wall is also helpful in emergencies when the SEOC needs to use different situational awareness tools. The content ranges from broad-based overviews to flash reports, all of which the SEOC can easily display on the video walls. Satellite feeds are another use, for measuring local and national media which is displayed on the video walls for the team members to view. Finally, the SEOC also connects to a video conferencing center that allows it to monitor emergencies in real-time – for example, a fire – as they unfold.

Sorensen has been thrilled with the results so far. The world has changed dramatically in terms of emergency response tactics. As a result, the demand to display a much wider and greater volume of information has increased exponentially. According to Sorensen, the SEOC can do just that with the NEC video walls. The ability to divide the video screens into three to four sets of screens, even breaking it down into individual screens if necessary, has proven highly valuable.

“We could not do anything remotely close to it with the old equipment. NEC Display video walls allow us to display a wider variety of information in formats that make more sense, and to access it on-the-fly,” Sorensen said.

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