Powerco is dedicated to keeping the lights on and the gas flowing through the delivery of safe, reliable and efficient energy. They are New Zealand’s second largest electricity and gas distribution utility with around 1.1m customers (across 446,000 connections) connected to its networks. Powerco have around 480 (full-time equivalent) employees with offices in New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Wellington and Tauranga.

Project Brief

Powerco required a class-leading integrated AV solution for their new $5 million Network Operations Centre. The Network Operations Centre consists of three working areas separated by glass sliders.

These areas house the control room operators, the customer service team and the third area combined the switch writers, release planners, SCADA team and the NOC management.

A ‘Storm Room’ was designed to improve Powerco’s response protocol in major events that damage the network. It includes a six-screen video wall supplying information identifying outage areas, SCADA data and Powerco web pages that help with customer relationships.

The ‘Storm Room’ is complemented by additional video walls and displays in adjoining spaces, all of which required a fully integrated audio, video and control system.

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Solutions

This project required the distribution of video signals from different locations around the NOC. In addition to simple video distribution, full KVM (Keyboard, Video & Mouse) support was required to allow control of PC’s when they are displayed on any of the video walls.

A Visionary Solutions PacketAV™ Video-Over-IP system was selected to achieve the required functionality. This allowed standard structured cabling and ethernet switches to be used, eliminating the need for specialist cabling & video matrices, whilst also providing limitless expandability for future additions.

The project called for the installation of video displays in both the Control Room, and the Storm Room. The Storm Room features a 6×2 Video Wall, and the Control Room features a 2×2 Video Wall with 4 additional displays in key locations around the room.

Each display was paired with a Visionary Solutions D4100 PacketAV™ decoder. These decoders provide the signal to each display and perform the video processing required to achieve the video wall functionality.

Additionally, a total of 8 Visionary Solutions E4100 PacketAV™ encoders were provided for video signal input and USB for KVM functionality.

QSC Acoustic Design™ AD-S802T column loudspeakers were installed adjacent to the Control Room video wall, and a pair of AD-S4T were installed in a similar position in the Storm Room. The Acoustic Design™ series achieved the desired outcome with its sleek, unobtrusive design with the AD-S802T providing tight pattern control to keep the sound where it is wanted.

Amplification was provided by a QSC Q-SYS™ CXD4.2Q Network Amplifier. Designed specifically for use with the Q-SYS™ Ecosystem, CXD-Q amplifiers marry the amp technology found in the CXD platform with the powerful Q-SYS network processing and control system to create the perfect solution for installed applications. Simple connection via standard Layer 3 Ethernet allowed for fast deployment, and easy control + monitoring of the amplifier parameters.

Powerco required a simple & intuitive control platform to allow easy operation of the system in what can be a high-pressure environment. This system needed to provide intuitive interfaces for controlling display power, video + audio routing, and volume control for all spaces.

TSH elected to use the QSC Q-SYS™ Ecosystem to meet these requirements and developed touch screen interfaces to provide simple control of the technology in each space. The Visionary Solutions PacketAV™ integrated seamlessly with the Q-SYS platform providing live thumbnail images on the user interface to give instant feedback on the two QSC TSC-7 7” touch panels.

User Interface

The simple user interface allows the operator to select any input, and display that on any segment, or the entire video wall. The interface also provides simple audio source selection, and volume control.

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Equipment List

ImageModelQuantityObjective
qsc-code-110fQSC Q-SYS™ Core 110f1Audio Processing & Systems Control Processor
q-sys-tsc-7QSC Q-SYS™ TSC-7 Touch Screen Controller2User Control Interface
q-sys-cxd4-2qQSC Q-SYS™ CXD4.2Q Network Amplifier1Audio Amplification
ad-s802tQSC AcousticDesign™ AD-S802T Column Loudspeaker2Sound Reinforcement
ad-s10t-ad-s4tQSC AcousticDesign™ AD-S4T Surface Loudspeaker2Sound Reinforcement
e4100Visionary Solutions PacketAV™ E41008Video over IP Encoder
d4100Visionary Solutions PacketAV™ D410014Video over IP Decoder

Partnership: TSH Audio and Video

Situated conveniently on Eliot Street, TSH is the only professional technical supplier in Taranaki that caters to all your hire or sales needs for audio, lighting, projection, staging, production and installation. We have a great team of trained professionals with just the right level of expertise to meet any of your requirements.

Our experience spans over 40 years and includes events of all types and sizes in the greater Taranaki Region, New Plymouth and throughout New Zealand. Whatever your needs, big or small, we have the equipment and expertise to help.

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