DEXON Controls a 40m Wide Video Wall
This installation story covers how network operations centers work and to what extent they utilize AV technology in their daily operations. We describe the actual progress of installing the largest video wall in Poland with its grandiose size of 92 square meters and our DXN5000 controller was customized to this project.
T-Mobile Polska, Warsaw, Poland
The growing telecommunications sector in Poland
The number of mobile phone users and the need for modern communication services grew rapidly all over the world during the last decades. Large industrial sectors have been developed to build and support communication infrastructure serving the rapidly growing requirements. The mobile phone operation services grew exponentially also in Poland during the last decades. More and more customers must have been supported with residential or professional communication services and systems.
One of the main players in Poland was Era with a story that started in 1996. In February 1996 'Polish Digital Telephony' won a license to provide telecommunications services and permission to build a mobile radio communication network according to the standard GSM in the 900 MHz band, which was later extended to GSM 1800 MHz. The first test (non-commercial) base stations were launched during the International Trade Fair in June 1996 and a few base stations in Warsaw. This was the start of a fantastic industrial growth.
By the end of 2004, Era had over 8.6 million customers and was the largest mobile phone network operator in Central Europe, and by the end of June 2011 it had 13.2 million subscribers, placing it third in the market with 30% market share. Era was one of Poland's most recognizable domestic brand names, partly because the company pursued an aggressive advertising campaign. Era was the first operator in the country to launch a HSDPA service in October 2006.
T-Mobile Polska in a nutshell
As the next step of this story, the German telecommunications giant German Telecom took over the company in 2010 and the Era name was re-branded as T-Mobile on 5 June 2011. T-Mobile Polska ranks among the ten biggest foreign companies in Poland and is one of the country’s most important investors today. T-Mobile Polska offers a wide range of telecommunications services for consumers and business customers alike. Under the T-Mobile brand, the company offers mobile and fixed-network telephony and internet services as contract, prepaid or mixed rate plans.
As T-Mobile Polska experienced continuous increase in communication demand the management decided to build up a centralized Network Operations Center (NOC) where the full communication infrastructure of the country can be supervised and managed. The planned NOC is intended to support efficient operation and future expansion opportunities. This NOC has been set up in Warsaw in 2018 with large financial and manpower investments.
What is a network operations center?
Generally, a Network Operations Center means one or more locations from which network monitoring, control and management are exercised over computers and telecommunications networks. NOCs are implemented by business organizations, public utilities or government agencies that require highly available service by complete and reliable supervision.
NOC personnel are responsible for monitoring small or large networks for certain conditions that may require special attention to avoid degraded service. In telecommunication environments, NOCs are responsible for monitoring power failures, communication lines, communications alarms and other performance issues that may affect reliable network operation.
Efficient and reliable operation must be backed by easy-to-process statistic illustrations, displaying data collected from the fields. NOCs are usually equipped with a central video wall to display information of common interest and several rows of desks with operators, all facing the video wall which typically shows details of general network performance, statistical data about operation, ongoing incidents or significant alarms.
Technicians usually have several computers and monitors on their desk for the supervision of certain part of operation. The NOC must be equipped with the video wall, operators with different responsibilities, and professional telecommunication network supporting interaction of operators with each other and with information over the video wall.
One of the largest video walls all over the world?
Management of network traffic is a critical service of the company as they aim to avoid glitches and service breaks. Supervising and managing such a heavy loaded communication network can be performed only from a centralized control room. This is a real mission critical control room providing complex services for reliable operations.
With its 3x 34 monitor layout serving 92 square meters, this video wall operates 24/7 to enhance efficiency and quality of telecommunication services in entire Poland. Four different departments use the large area of 40 meter wide video wall employing altogether 150 operators who are responsible for different aspects of operation.
Check out this amazing video to see the entire NOC.
- 40m long
- 102 55" LCD monitor
- 150 desks
- 92 square meters in total
Main Services of T-Mobile Polska’s NOC
- Supervise communication traffic and nodes all over the country
- Develop and check statistics of network traffic in order to see bottlenecks and future development needs
- Provide information for the operators who are responsible for different parts of this network
- Support problem and crisis management to work out emergency network routing
- Supervision of Internet services
- Give 24/7 operation to guarantee uninterrupted service
- Provide the highest possible reliability for the full telecommunication infrastructure
The information over each segment of the large video wall is managed by assigned content managers having the responsibility to map valuable information for the operator community. The large staff provides 24/7 operation service because T-Mobile Polska must ensure interruption free and reliable communication service for millions, requiring day and night operations.
Check out the original images of this outstanding installations.
DEXON's contribution to success
This impressively large video wall is controlled by 4 pieces of DEXON Systems’ video wall controllers. The video wall displays network management data in a great number of Chrome browser windows, statistics, measurement data, all received from all over the country.
The segments of this video wall contain altogether 102 screens that have independent administrators with the right to supervise the full wall while operators can share their screens' information over the video wall in real time. Undoubtedly, high quality and crystal-clear images are necessary when sharing images and screens with other operators.
Leading edge of large graphics desktop
In the background of this wall they use practically a very large area of graphics table that is rendered pixel-by-pixel. Leading edge services of this video wall includes capability of opening multiple windows displaying graphics content of over 30 web browsers. The Chrome browsers run over DEXON’s controllers’ Windows operating systems and simultaneously display tremendous amount of data.
Different data from different sources must be displayed dynamically so the graphics contents must be rendered in real time. The advantage is to draw and refresh very large graphics areas with up to date information through Web browsers quickly and precisely.
Layout management
The layout management of DEXON’s technology may be implemented by a special application called DXWallControl or through a Web browser providing HTML5 compliant user interface. The layout management must be able to handle this huge area and to control, save and recall previously defined layouts.
With just a few clicks the full layout is saved. The rather complex system works with several layouts that must be changed on the frequently changing requirements of 24/7. The wall content must be changed to a completely different layout in seconds. So, the real leading edge is the capability to be able to handle such a huge wall of 102 displays within seconds.
See T-Mobile Polska's LinkedIn announcement on this amazing NOC installation.
Display operators’ screen or video inputs in real time
The display of remote operator screens or live video inputs can be displayed over the video wall through direct HDMI connection in real time. The operator screens may contain important information for the audience and so the windows can be drawn to any position or any size over the video wall.
Additionally, real time scaling must be applied for the perfect visual experience of the audience. Leading edge of unlimited scaling and real time display of directly connected video information can be applied here.
Display operators’ screen through LAN connection
Operator workstations are connected to the local LAN and so DEXON’s technology offers the capability to display operators’ screen content through the local area network by using digital transmission. This service is called NetComputer.
It ensures fully digital and pixel precise display. The screen contents can be zoomed and put to any window position over this large video wall area. Outstandingly, they can display unlimited number of operator workstations and enable sharing important information with other operators.
"We found a reliable partner when started to cooperate with DEXON Systems around 8 years before. We work continuously in implementing advanced AV projects where we receive reliable products and perfect technical support. The crown of our cooperation is this T-Mobile Polska NOC project as one of the biggest Network Operating Control rooms in the world. The daily operation and management of around 150 operators’ work is the real evidence of the performance provided by DEXON Systems.”
The daily operation ensures residential and commercial communication services for millions in Poland. Reliability is a fundamental requirement that comes from the nature of the telecommunication industry. This is 100% ensured with 24/7 operation for years.
Additionally, this NOC provides highly efficient service by giving immediate answer for operation problems and even optimizing of the network service. This NOC installation and operation generates extremely high value for T-Mobile and their end users.
DEXON Systems’ professional products give the base for this centralized NOC operation and so contribute real value for their citizens. DEXON Systems are video wall controller manufacturer supplying mission critical control room equipment for system integrators all over the world.
The company develops and integrates advanced hardware and software technologies to its products and so works as one of the most advanced manufacturers in the world. Operating in around 50 countries, the company supplied thousands of mission critical control rooms to make a more comfortable and reliable environment.
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