Project Portfolio

William Braden Disaster Operations Center

American Red Cross Greater Chicago Chapter, Chicago, IL

Challenge:

When disaster strikes in Illinois, the Chicago Chapter of the American Red Cross coordinates the immediate relief efforts. Information from smaller chapters around the state is gathered, assessed and combined with available resources. The chapter required a permanent headquarters with a disaster operations center so that all the electronic data and images could be viewed and consolidated as quickly as possible.

Solution:

The heart of the new headquarters is the William Braden Disaster Operations Center (DOC), an average-sized room with seating for only about 25 people. Making maximum use of the available space, the decision was made to install two horseshoe-shaped tables that face one impressive video wall with multiple images. The video wall consists of two large rear projection screens flanked by two 32" TV monitors on each side, giving the audience up to six different video sources during a disaster.

Since the lights needed to be left on so that documents can easily be read during a disaster, the consultant and our integration team wanted to install two large rear-projection screens. Rear projection screens can be clearly viewed in high ambient light. The challenge with this installation was that there was only a two-foot crawl space behind the video walls. We installed custom framework so that two Barco Helios projectors with .9 lenses could fit within this narrow space. The projectors’ compact size and durability made them ideal for this application, especially since they could be in use 24/7 during emergencies.

A ClearOne audio conferencing system puts workers in contact with their on-site field volunteers within minutes of their arrival at a disaster site. Our team hung six microphones from the DOC’s ceiling, in part to avoid excess noise from people moving around and bumping into the tables. A rooftop satellite and cable TV connection provide a variety of real time sources for the video wall.

A closeted rack system holds a DVD player, VCR, and two small-chassis computers, which contain the organization’s databases and mapping software. A wireless keyboard and mouse can tap into that information as needed. In addition, laptop computers can be connected to the system through adapters in the table and at the rear side of the room. A Crestron control system was programmed by our team to allow control of all the technology from two touch panels.

Equipment Highlights:

Rear projection screens; projectors; ceiling-mounted microphones; control system and touch panels; audio conferencing system; 32” TV monitors

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