Control rooms in the transport industry

# Control room market overview

Control rooms are seen as essential equipment in the Transportation, Military & Defense, Utility & Telecom, Healthcare and Mining & Manufacturing industries. Among those industries, Transportation currently holds the largest market share in control rooms and will continue to account for the largest share in the future.

Have a look at the projected growth rates of all industries:

By the way …

… the Utility & Telecom and Mining & Manufacturing industries are experiencing the strongest growth rates (CAGR).

# Transportation within control rooms

Transportation is a diverse segment that requires control room solutions specific to rail & port control, air traffic control, traffic management, and fleet management. For most applications, an intelligent transport management system (ITS) minimizes congestion and improves safety, combining security, efficiency and general surveillance with analysis of large transport network topologies. A typical transport control room operates 24/7 and is specifically designed to provide the best ergonomic solution for the safety and comfort of its operators. An ITS is not just a single system, it is more like a combination of many intelligent software solutions providing value together. Following you get a clear overview of what solution is needed in which kind of operational field in the transportation industry.

# Rail, port & air traffic control

In the area of directly interaction between humans and devices, machines, planes, trains, etc. specific solutions are required:

• Rail & Port control is mostly managed by supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software. You can find more details about the key players in the EMEA market and the functions of the software itself in the blog “SCADA within Control Rooms”.
• Air traffic control requires a special software – an Air Traffic Management software. Information about the software and the innovative market trends can be found in the blog “Air Traffic Control”.

# Traffic management

The traffic surveillance management’s goal is to track vehicles, identify patterns, control toll roads automatically, and more. To get this done, first of all a video management system (VMS) needs to handle all the displayed cameras and additional information. The main players in this area are clearly Le Grand (https://www.legrandav.com/) and Genetec (www.genetec.com). To now utilize the streams of these VMS, additional software solutions can be integrated. An example for reaching the goals mentioned is automated license plate recognition (ALPR).

Another solution, which generates useful real-time information about traffic jams, accidents or construction sites e.g. through social media, can be seen as an intelligent traffic management system. Nexterité has done just that and is now making use of the social media information to provide users with better and more efficient routes. You can find more about this in the blog about our new partner Nexterité.

# Fleet management

Moreover, computer-aided dispatch (CAD) software in a control room is used in the transportation segment to ensure timely dispatch of vehicles according to the operational plan, as well as track and monitor vehicles. CAD software helps in centralizing and controlling dispatch units efficiently. For proper management of transportation, CAD software plays a vital role when a large volume of vehicle details is to be managed and monitored. In more detail, CAD software helps in vehicle routing, provide status updates, and ensure proper communication with vehicles for the smooth functioning of vehicle movement. This mostly takes place when talking about fleet management. Find more information about CAD within Fleet Management in our blog “…”.

If you are interested in more information about these topics or have a specific need, feel free to contact us!