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BRISTOL WATER

Display technology gives control center staff clear visibility of a complex water supply system.

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INTRODUCTION

Bristol Water has bold ambitions to deliver excellent customer experiences and remain the most trusted utility in the UK. That’s a big challenge when more than 1.2 million people depend on reliable water supply.

Monitoring over half a million sources, 4100 miles of mains, 164 pumping stations and 150 reservoirs is no easy task with systems that had grown piecemeal over more than 20 years. Bristol Water wanted to improve visibility and monitoring efficiency so staff could make better decisions for controlling operations more efficiently, maximizing their assets and maintaining security.

Electrosonic worked with Bristol Water to completely upgrade its operational control room with a new display solution that helps provide improved monitoring and control. A focus on human factors and ergonomic design ensures more efficient working conditions.

OVERVIEW

Electrosonic solution featured a new overview display consisting of a video wall and big-screen display, new workstation displays, furniture and consoles, and a central control rack, which includes image processing equipment.

The workstations are designed with operator ergonomics in mind and are equipped with edge-lit LCDs on fully-adjustable mounts. Electrosonic also supplied a touchscreen controller for selecting preset video wall configurations. Remote KVM controls installed on the main operators’ console allow full control of the video wall via access to the image processor.

The video wall has a default configuration, which places the various image sources at preferred positions, but the image processor allows any source image to appear at any size anywhere on the display.

An alarm monitoring system is permanently connected to the main display fed by data from a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system. This monitors all of Bristol Water’s pumps, water levels, flow rates and more.

The entire Bristol Water system is covered by security monitoring. Principal status information and related images are available on a security display in the control room. If an incident is detected, the camera nearest to the incident is automatically selected for display.

CHALLENGE

The control center was cluttered and inefficient, with operators working on 20 separate displays. Existing alarm systems receive alerts from real-time SCADA data and a GIS system, but the company recognized that cutting-edge display and collaboration technology would be required to make and share critical decisions about that data.

Bristol Water also wanted to improve working conditions for staff so they could make better, faster decisions, improve responsiveness and maintain essential supplies.

SOLUTION

To improve working conditions and give operators greater visibility and situational awareness, Electrosonic designed and installed a video wall, large format display and customized workstations for the operators. The displays are integrated with an alarm monitoring system linked to SCADA data.

The solution was designed around the operators’ workflow, taking account of ergonomic factors that are essential in stressful control room environments. The solution is scalable for changing operational needs.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Bristol Water now has an efficient, scalable control center that enables it to maintain reliable supplies to a growing population and comply with increasingly stringent regulations on supply efficiency and customer service standards.

Improved situational awareness and collaboration facilities enable the team to respond more effectively to incidents or supply issues. It’s on track to maintain its position as Britain’s most trusted utility.

Project Details

Client
Bristol Water
Location
Bristol, England
Size
1,000 sq.ft
Services
Audiovisual Design
Engineering Design
Build & System Integration
Facility Integration
Fabrication & Installation
Control Systems
Testing & Programming
Commissioning
The new display installation helps to provide improved monitoring of the Bristol Water network, and gives the monitoring staff much improved and more efficient working conditions. It is a good example of how Electrosonic and NEC can work closely with a customer to ensure a control room display system meets actual user requirements in an economical and practical way.
Bristol Water Project Manager

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