Eumetsat offers a panoramic view of climatic conditions with AMX

Eumetsat has worked in collaboration with SWiCA Conference Technology and the distributor Harman Audio Pro, Heilbronn electroacoustics, to upgrade your LEO Mission Control Center with networked AVoIP solutions AMX.

Based in the German city of Darmstadt, Eumetsat is the European operational agency for weather monitoring satellites, climate and environment from space. The data produced by its satellites is vital for weather forecasting and contributes to monitoring the environment and climate change..

There are two control rooms (GEO y LEO) located on adjacent floors of the headquarters in Darmstadt where staff monitor incoming data 24 hours of the day.

a few years ago, resorted to SWiCA Conference Technology, long-time audiovisual partner, to update the GEO Mission Control Center (MCC GEO), with technology IP-based signal distribution y AMX control solutions to improve operational processes.

After this renovation, SWiCA obtained the installation from Eumetsat and collaborated with Heilbronn electroacoustics to completely redesign the control and monitoring systems of LEO Mission (MCC LEO).

The renovation consisted of the implementation of a range of touch panels, controllers and terminals and AMX AVoIP solutions to maintain consistency and communication in both control rooms.

“Many design ideas that we developed with the MCC GEO have proven effective in daily practice and, therefore, have also been implemented in the MCC LEO”, comment Jörg Schmittroth, systems operations engineer.

The control center is divided into six oval-shaped work islands that serve as remote centers dedicated to individual satellite programs. Each work island is equipped with 20 computer screens, four speakers, six gooseneck microphones and two touch panels in the series AMX Modero for control.

SWiCA used encoders and decoders of the AMX N1000 series to design a custom switching solution that allows operators to control each five different computers, with a keyboard and mouse set, either with a single or dual monitor setup.

The linchpin of IP-based signal distribution in the LEO Mission Control Center is AMX's SVSI family of products., with which SWiCA has good experience in various projects since 2012, según Markus Schürmann.

An AMX Netlinx NX3200 serves as primary controller in the LEO Mission room, while two are assigned NX1200 to each oval, which distributes the workload and ensures that an entire oval does not fail in the event of a defect.

As a web-based control center for sistema SVSI, he video controller N8002 Provides a single point of control for AMX video devices and a web user interface for manual switching.

The video controller detects and manages all connected devices within the system. The N8002 operates in hot standby mode with a second device of the same type, providing redundancy for always-on control.

“Regarding the selection of components, It was important to guarantee compatibility with the products installed in Misión GEO”, states Markus Schürmann, owner/operator of SWiCA Conference Technology. “This simplifies stocking or ordering spare parts and ensures that the same high quality is available everywhere.”.

AMX's SVSI system has already proven its effectiveness at the GEO MCC. The ultra-low latency of the N1000 series was key and the resolution is sufficient for all tasks. SVSI enables independent multicasting of audio and video. and USB signals, and SVSI management is very sophisticated.

The AMX solutions installed at the MCC LEO are part of an infrastructure that can support operations expansions, even as Eumetsat continues to increase its resources and plans to launch new satellites from 2025.

“Both in GEO MCC and now in LEO MCC, we have more options than we currently need: “We are ahead of our time.”, afiraó Jörg Schmittroth. “Coordination meetings are already taking place to consider what the control center should look like in a few years. We have deliberately designed the LEO MCC in such a way that we can easily organize future tasks. Thanks to a sophisticated concept, the center can be assigned, memorize and recall flexibly on the ovals”.