City of Lakeland Water Facility Uses RGB MediaWall 2900 to Track Flow
Alameda, CA - The Lakeland Water Utilities manages the water and wastewater flows for Lakeland, the picturesque Southwest Florida city located between Orlando and Tampa, protecting the water supply and managing wastewater reclamation for Lakeland's 94,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers.
The treatment facilities use a variety of methods to handle waste, including thermophilic (heat-loving bacteria) for sludge digestion. As a final step, wastewater is filtered through 1,600 acres of wetlands reclaimed from the city's former phosphate processing industry. The wetland discharge then flows into a tributary of the Alafia River. Keeping the water safe to drink and the wastewater safe to discharge are the agency's primary charters.
The water district turned to RGB Spectrum's Media Wall 2900 video processor for the nerve center for the new control room it opened last fall. Before the control room was installed, monitoring was handled the old-fashioned way, by watching a light board with status indicator lights. The control room needed to handle 53 different inputs from PCs, security cameras, a live television feed, and sensors that control the operation of the agency's pump equipment, water quality management systems, and the status of wastewater treatment processes in its facilities, the City of Lakeland, and surrounding communities.
The City of Lakeland chose Melbourne, Florida-based Electric Picture Display as its integration partner based on the company's extensive experience solving unique visual display challenges. After careful consideration, Electric Picture Display specified RGB Spectrum's Media Wall 2900 video processor.
The various signal inputs are scaled and arranged in windows within the MediaWall 2900 processor and then output to a 2 x 2 array of Planar M46LX LCD panels, each with 1366 x 768 resolution. System configuration is controlled by a touch panel. The system allows operators to keep track of processes on multiple computers and cameras simultaneously and in real time. This capability results in enhanced situational awareness which enables operators to achieve consistently better quality water processing.
According to Robert P. Higgins, head of Electric Picture Display, the integrator chose RGB Spectrum's MediaWall 2900 processor for several reasons. The MW2900 enables the main display to present multiple signal types without prior format conversion. The control system is user-friendly. RGB's web-based management interface helps an operator create or modify any layout desired, save the layouts as presets, and then recall them. The system also is capable of using the full pixel density of the 2x2 array of LCDs for best image quality including video and graphics.
"We selected RGB Spectrum because of the sterling reputation of RGB products for reliability and serviceability," said Higgins. "The MediaWall 2900 met all of our functional criteria while delivering value within our budget-and allowing for future expansion. Most important, RGB products are robust. This facility operates 24/7 and equipment has to withstand the rigors of long-term operational service. That is why we appreciated the redundant power supply option.
Post-installation, the customer is very pleased with performance and reliability. After three months of operation, Electric Picture Display reports that it has not yet been asked for phone support, as the customer quickly grasped how easy it was to operate the systems.
Higgins reported that the customer rated the RGB equipment very high for its excellent image quality, performance, and reliability. "This difference in their situational awareness is now so far ahead of anything they have had in the past," said Higgins. "It is a great design."
"This is a perfect example of how the MW 2900 processor allows water treatment and electrical utilities to harness the power of an advanced command-and-control system even in a small control room at a value point that makes sense." said Bob Marcus, CEO of RGB Spectrum.
For further information about the MediaWall2900 or inquiries for control room applications contact: info@rgbspectrum.com.
RGB Spectrum® is a leader in videographic and decision support system technologies. Products include the View(TM) family of video windowing systems, MediaWall® multi-screen display controllers, Linx(TM) matrix switchers, DGy(TM) digital recording system, DSx(TM) H.264 streaming and recording codecs, MultiPoint KvM(TM) control room decision support systems, and SynchroMaster® keyers and overlayers. RGB Spectrum is based in Alameda, California, and can be reached at 510-814-7000 and on the internet at www.rgb.com.
press contact: wendy tsabba
communications manager
tel: (510) 814-7000
