Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series Distributes Critical Data at Powerco’s Network Operations Center
Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series selected by TSH Audio and Video for integration at Powerco, a leading gas and electricity distributor in New Zealand.
Powerco is powering the future of New Zealand through the delivery of safe, reliable and efficient energy. As the second-largest gas and largest electricity distributor in New Zealand, Powerco is responsible for providing dedicated resources to around 1.1 million customers across 452,000 homes, businesses and organizations. Powerco has around 480 employees across four locations, including New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Wellington and Tauranga.Powerco selected TSH Audio and Video, a full-service audiovisual, lighting, projection and production company, for consulting, design and installation in their new Network Operations Center. The $5 million Network Operations Center consists of three working areas separated by glass sliders. The areas consist of control room operations, customer service and switch writers, release planners, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) team and the network operations center (NOC) management.
Powerco is responsible for keeping the lights on and the gas flowing throughout New Zealand. Large amounts of data flow in and out of Powerco’s Network Operations Center to provide safe and efficient energy to their customers. And when the supply is interrupted, it is Powerco’s mission to respond quickly. To meet these demands, Powerco’s Network Operations Center is a mission-critical environment because having the very latest and most reliable technology is imperative.
The Network Operations Center includes a storm room, which was designed to improve Powerco’s response protocol in major events that damage the network. It consists of a six-screen video wall supplying information to identify outage areas and SCADA data. The storm room is complemented by additional video walls and displays in the adjoining areas, which required a fully integrated audio, video and control system.
“The project required the distribution of video signals across different locations within the Network Operations Center,” said a representative from TSH Audio and Video. “In addition to simple video distribution, full KVM support was essential to enable control of PC’s when they are displayed on the video walls. Powerco had an existing network infrastructure in their Network Operations Center so we needed a flexible and versatile system that would allow us to work over their network infrastructure.”
TSH Audio and Video added, “We selected Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series to achieve the required functionality. This allowed standard structured cabling and Ethernet switches to be utilized, while eliminating the need for specialized cabling and video matrices. It provided limitless expandability for future additions. It was important to have ultra low-latency because we’re transmitting mission-critical data. Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series provided us with ultra-low latency to meet our project requirements.”
NSL, the exclusive distributor of Visionary in New Zealand, provided TSH Audio and Video with product, design and support. The project included the installation of video displays in the control room and storm room. The control room features a 2×2 video wall with four additional displays and the storm room features a 6×2 video wall. Visionary’s PacketAV Decoder is paired with each display to power a reliable signal and perform the video processing for the video wall functionality. Eight PacketAV Encoders were installed to provide video signal input and USB for KVM functionality.
Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series was combined with QSC’s Q-SYS to provide intuitive inferences for controlling display power, video and audio routing and volume control. “Pairing Visionary’s PacketAV Matrix Series with QSC’s Q-SYS enabled us to provide a flexible and intuitive system,” said TSH Audio and Video. “We can quickly and cost-effectively add additional screens or video inputs as Powerco’s requirements change. It eliminated the need for additional changes to the system and new cable runs. Visionary PacketAV Matrix Series integrated seamlessly with the Q-SYS platform. Using QSC’s touch screens with live video thumbnails creates a simplified user experience with instant feedback by displaying each video source available.”
Visionary’s 4K UHD over IP PacketAV Matrix Series encoders and decoders redefine traditional switch matrix systems to create a flexible, scalable, cinema-quality solution for IP networks. The PacketAV endpoints offer ultra-low latency with unlimited distribution capabilities. Utilizing existing network resources, the encoders and decoders can be rapidly deployed to enable cost-effective distribution of multi-channel Dante/AES67 audio and video over IP.