Strategy Room for San Francisco Disaster Relief Activities
Not so long ago, the Loma Prieta Earthquake quite literally shook the city to its foundations. Countless disasters have befallen San Francisco and the Bay Area, often requiring the immediate response of multiple city services and departments.
The San Francisco Emergency Communications Department recently turned to RGB Spectrum technology partner Snader & Associates to create a state-of-the-art Strategy Room - a first of its kind for the city - in which chiefs of staff can meet and coordinate relief activities during a disaster. Funded by the Homeland Security Act, the project was 'soup to nuts' with Snader attending all design and preconstruction meetings with the end users, City architects and contractors to ensure the team fully understood system needs and to enable the design and integration of all necessary technology and features.
As anyone - victim or rescuer - who has lived through a major disaster will attest, during an emergency accurate information and speedy communication are critical to addressing the multiple 'fronts' of any civil crisis. It was essential that the new system include various computer and video feeds simultaneously displayed for quick access by decision makers.
The $165 million turnkey room incorporates dual 67" Planar DLP displays forming a 1x2 video wall with an RGB Spectrum MediaWallsystem with custom designed interface provided by Snader, officials in the Strategy Room can access instantaneously a wide variety of information, including TV broadcasts (both cable and off-air), 911 audio and video data sources, and CAD maps of the city. Equipment is housed neatly in racks within the custom wall cabinetry designed for the room.
The system proved a total success as, during the first emergency trials drill, Mayor Newsom and the Chiefs of Fire, Police and other civil services were able to meet in the Strategy Room to make decisions based on the visual information displayed.
Snader and Associates Inc. is an independent reseller and integrator serving production, post-production, audio visual presentation, 3D animation and Federal Government professionals around the globe. Snader is acknowledged for its expertise in the Broadcast and AV design build business.www.Snader.com
RGB Spectrum® is a leading designer and manufacturer of videographic and multimedia hardware subsystems. Products include the View™ family of video windowing systems, the RGB/Videolink® line of scan converters, The Linx® DVI Matrix Switcher, the DGy™ digital recording system, Quadra® universal scaler and synchronizer, SynchroMaster® keyers and overlayers and ComputerWall® and MediaWall® multi-screen display controllers. RGB Spectrum is based in Alameda, California, and can be reached at 510-814-7000 and on the internet at http://www.rgb.com.
RGB Spectrum is a leading designer and manufacturer of mission-critical, real-time audio-visual solutions for a civilian, government, and military client base. The company offers integrated hardware, software, and control systems to satisfy the most demanding requirements. Since 1987, RGB Spectrum has been dedicated to helping its customers achieve Better Decisions. Faster.™
