The Vancouver EOC coordinates emergency response teams from Vancouver's police and RCMP, fire and rescue, traffic management, city engineering services, health authority and more. Staffed by personnel from city departments and trained volunteers, it supports all response activities in the field and provides overall direction to responders in emergency situations. The 24/7 hub is critical to the safety of visitors, athletes, spectators and residents of Vancouver.
Powered by Christie HD405 single-chip DLP high definition projectors and the Christie TVC-1210 display wall controller, the EOC features a 26ft wide screen with a pixel resolution of 3840 x 1080. It is used for emergency mapping, linking to emergency response centres, television coverage and news feeds.
Applied Electronics' Calgary-based Kevin Stewart, who has been working with the City of Vancouver for several years to develop a solution to meet their needs, designed the Christie system at E-Comm. Managed locally by account manager Stephen Monteith in Applied Electronics' Burnaby office, the installation was completed and operational in the summer of 2009.
"Given the unquestionable need for system reliability and durability in such 24/7 operations, we looked to Christie to provide the solid display technology that was necessary for Vancouver's EOC," says Monteith. "Due to their long-standing reputation for producing exceptional, dependable products tailored to the control room environment, we have completed many successful mission-critical projects with Christie, so it was natural to employ their solutions for this type of operations centre."
In addition to the installation in the Emergency Operations Centre, Applied Electronics installed a Christie LW400 3LCD projector in the Conference Room. Used for smaller group collaboration and decision-making, the Conference Room utilises the projector in conjunction with a SMART board and video conferencing system to aid in their emergency planning development.
(Jim Evans)
