The customer
The high-speed line between Le Mans and Rennes is one of the largest railway projects financed by the European Commission. The state-owned operator of the French railway network, SNCF Réseau, commissioned Eiffage to finance, design, build and maintain the three billion euro project in 2011.
The railway line was completed in May 2017. It extends the existing route between Paris and Le Mans by a further 182 kilometres and shortens the journey time from Paris to Rennes to one and a half hours.
The request
To ensure the safety and reliability of the new line, the rail operators needed a central control center. As with all modern transport systems, safety is a critical element; therefore, the control center must be operational at all times.
The solution
The system integrator Elecdan, an expert in the field of KVM installations, was commissioned to equip the control center with a comprehensive KVM matrix system in order to monitor the new rail network and ensure absolute operational and failure safety.
In the control center, the information is sent directly to the workstations of the employees who are responsible for the safe and smooth running of the route. At the same time, they can see the entire rail network on a large video wall. In the event of an emergency, a crisis room is available in which all important information for dealing with possible incidents is projected onto the wall.
The solution consists of two IHSE Draco tera compact KVM matrices, each with 48 ports in a semi-redundant configuration, which connect 25 pairs of computers (main and backup units) with 26 workstations, as well as a projector and a large video wall. Each computer is connected to both matrices, each of which forms its own closed network. This structure ensures that if one matrix fails, at least half of the user workstations can still access all computers; half of the video wall displays would also not be affected by the failure.
Each workstation has six screens and two keyboard and mouse sets connected via Draco U switches. The image and data selection for the video wall and projector is done via the graphical user interface of the Draco tera KVM matrix.
“The installation offers an extremely easy-to-use solution that is equipped with maximum redundancy and reliability in the event of local component failure. The system enables operators to continuously monitor the network and ensures a safe and reliable railway line.”
– Adrien Trouve, Eiffage Energy
The use
The installed system provides all current information at all times, which can be immediately selected and changed by staff using simple system commands.
Keyboard and mouse sharing between screens reduces the number of devices on desks and makes it easier for users to access multiple separate computers without having to switch between different input devices.
