Digital KVM Extension and Switching in a German Airport Operations Center

Background

A large German airport operations centre faced a challenging work environment because the airport was expanding its terminal and adding gates to accommodate the growing number of passengers. Technical support staff wanted to avoid heat and noise in the operations control room environment that was centralising monitoring access control, security camera surveillance, and general airport security.

Challenge

In order to improve operators' efficiency, ensure a quiet work environment and, at the same time, make it easier for the IT staff to maintain and monitor servers running the system management applications, IT decided to backrack server infrastructure to a new central equipment room. Furthermore a video wall had to be connected to the servers in order to enable sharing visuals from different sources to all operators. The technical division decided to implement a matrix switching system that enabled extension and switching of multiple video and peripheral signal sources to different multi-screen operator desks. Furthermore the system had to support 24/7 operations, central management of user access rights, and both CATx and fibre cabling.