Ease of Installation and Flexibility Make Extron Twisted Pair the Right Choice for Massport's EOC at Logan Airport

Massport is an independent public authority that develops, promotes, and manages airports, the seaport, and the transportation infrastructure in Massachusetts. The Massport Emergency Operations Center at Boston's Logan Airport enables emergency management agencies to quickly and effectively manage significant incidents. Depending on the emergency and the requirements to address it, any law enforcement or governmental agency can be invited into the EOC. The main purpose of the EOC's AV system is to give agency representatives the ability to transmit video from their laptops and other sources to displays around the room. These sources could include live cameras from the incident site and local and national news broadcasts.

The MTP transmitters and universal receivers, along with the MTPX Plus 3216, give us the flexibility we needed to route any signal to any display.

Jay White, AdvanceTechnology

When Robert Lagasse of consultant R.G. Vanderweil Engineers was awarded the job of designing the EOC's AV system, he reviewed a wide range of AV products from several manufacturers. He felt that the Extron twisted pair solution was the one that "fit like a glove" and the easiest to install. The entire video transport system was then designed around Extron MTP products, and AdvanceTechnology of Scarborough, ME was selected as the integrator for the project.

Challenges

Anyone using the EOC needed to be able to easily and efficiently display images from numerous sources for everyone in the 64-seat, 2,000 square foot room. Another challenge was that there was limited space for AV cabling in the room's raised floor. The raised floor was 2-1/2" deep and provided cabling access throughout the room for multiple telephone and data cables, as well as AV.

Solution

Multiple displays were placed around the room to enable easy viewing of emergency-related images. To tie everything together, Lagasse felt that Extron twisted pair products would be the easiest to deploy, the smallest form factor, and the most convenient.

"The CAT 5-type UTP cables saved time and made the installation much simpler compared to a typical coax infrastructure," Lagasse says.

All input signals are routed through the Extron MTPX Plus 3216 twisted pair matrix switcher and fed to an Extron ISM 824 , a modular scaling multiswitcher, or directly to displays around the room. An important factor in the decision to use the MTPX Plus 3216 was that it provides dynamic skew equalization on all inputs and outputs, which ensures that MTP cable skew is eliminated, regardless of the combination of input/output cable lengths selected.

Along with the MTPX Plus 3216, Extron MTP T 15HD A transmitters are used to transmit high resolution video and audio signals to compatible MTP universal receivers. The auto sensing feature of the universal receivers detects the type of signal being transmitted, which is particularly useful in the EOC where there is no way to predict when a particular signal will need to be routed to a display. With their small form factor, the MTP transmitters and receivers were easily integrated into the EOC's infrastructure.

"The MTP transmitters and universal receivers, along with the MTPX Plus 3216, give us the flexibility we need to route any signal to any display," says Jay White of AdvanceTechnology.

To make mounting the transmitters and receivers even easier, they were used with the Extron ZipClip 100 . The Patent-Pending ZipClip mounting kit enables products to be quickly and securely mounted on most surfaces, including racks, tables, and lecterns.

"The ZipClip allows us to get a secure mount without brackets or similar items. It's quick, clean, and easy," White says.

Other AV equipment used at the EOC includes Extron P/2 DA2xi MT distribution amplifiers, Extron DVS 304 DVI video and RGB scalers, and AAP – Architectural Adapter Plate mounting frames.

Expectations Exceeded

Massport has identified many more uses for the EOC, and they are so pleased with the facility and the AV system that they're adding a second room across the hall with a similar AV setup.