Cleveland Department of Public Safety Emergency Operations Center

The Solution

The Haivision video wall is an 8×2 arrangement of 16 55” LCD display monitors that act as an immersive visual canvas for almost any content, where needed. The video wall itself is designed for critical visualization and the displays are rated 24/7 with independent power supplies. Paired with the displays is CineNet Wall Management Software and an Alpha FX Processor which combined deliver processing, rendering, media playback, and content management. CineNet makes it quick and easy to position where content is displayed on the video wall. Operators can simply drag and drop content to the wall, resize, crop, move, and zoom with a just a few mouse clicks, ensuring the right people have access to the right information at the right time. With Haivision technology in place, the EOC can access and display video feeds from over 1500 city cameras in real-time.

“You might think that being at the scene of the event is important, however, from the EOC we can see everything that’s happening in real-time from multiple camera views and have access to additional intelligence which allows our response efforts to be faster and more targeted when we communicate with agents in the field,” said Fred Szabo. “It’s a highly effective way to operate.”

The video wall system is connected to three separate locations within the EOC main floor. First is the center itself which has 26 workstations manned by agency representatives, a 16-screen video wall, and four auxiliary screens. Then there’s an executive conference room that’s frequently used by the city’s mayor and his cabinet to determine policy during a major event. The Joint Information Center (JIC) is the third location connected to the video wall and is the designated area for media representatives to do their reporting during a major event.

Both the conference room and JIC feature integrated projection screens, as well as standard display technology. Most importantly, the video feeds are the same across all three locations, synchronizing everyone’s view of events as they unfold. The video wall in the EOC adds another layer of functionality by giving other partners with their own video and surveillance systems such as drone operations, and the Cleveland police helicopter downlink, the ability to plug their laptops into the system and share video surveillance feeds around the clock.