GENEVA -- Barco Control Rooms, the undisputed market leader in control rooms, provides a 225m² total display solution for the Reliance Infocomm at Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City (DAKC), Navi Mumbai (India). Reliance Infocomm is a telecom industry giant and the first company in the world to roll out such a large geographical network using only one national network operations center (NNOC).

In the main NNOC, Barco installed a dual set-up on the left and right hand side of the center, with each side having three display sections each consisting of 67 DLPÔ projection displays in respectively 6x4, 8x4 and 6x4 configurations. The total configuration comprises 160 modules, equaling nearly 1,26,000,000 pixels in a single control room, and a total screen surface of almost 225m².

The projection engines/controlware link was implemented in a fully digital way. Barco also equipped additional rooms totaling over 36m². Next to the main NNOC in Mumbai, Barco implemented a situation room (67 modules in a 3x2 configuration) and a security control room (67 modules in a 5x2 configuration) and a back-up NNOC (67 modules in a 5x2 configuration) in Hyderabad. All these control rooms were implemented at the same time, making this Barco’s biggest single project implementation.

In a slightly curved configuration, the display spans almost the entire length of the NNOC’s two opposing walls. Barco’s 225m² total display solution integrates projection technology, controlware and wall management software. Barco enables the dynamic visualisation of network monitoring applications and Web-based supervision of the network’s routers and switchers, as well as the simultaneous display of four video and two RGB sources per display section. Barco’s screen-scraping software allows the content of the operators’ PCs to be replicated on the display walls. The controlware was selected, among other reasons, because of its upgradeability, offering Reliance the most future-proof front-end available.

The significance of a single NNOC is that all services, including billing, databases and customer relations can be managed centrally. This approach reduces the cost of network management. Reliance Infocomm launched its mobility services in 104 cities on 28 December 2002, when it kicked off operations.

The first floor of the NNOC features a visitor’s area for corporate presentations to high profile government and corporate visitors from India and abroad. A bridge is suspended from the ceiling of the NNOC allowing visitors to pass through the NNOC without disturbing the day-to-day operations. After the successful implementation of this worldclass project, Reliance is now planning to further extend the centralised control room concept to its other business divisions.