UK London Area Control Centre to be fully equipped with Barco's Air Traffic Management technology

Barco has completed deliveries of its Air Traffic Management visualization components for two major projects in the London Area Control Centre (LACC) at Swanwick, Hampshire, UK. The first project, the upgrade of the existing LACC, includes the delivery of approximately two hundred 28-inch LCD main displays and more than three hundred graphics display servers, to be integrated into the center's en-route air traffic control systems. The second project involves the delivery of another eighty 28-inch displays, which will be integrated into a new Terminal Control system when the London Terminal Control Centre (LTCC) moves from the current West Drayton location to Swanwick in 2007.

LACC upgrade program

Barco was selected for the LACC En-route upgrade following a thorough technical and commercial evaluation by the UK's air navigation service provider NATS, which included various prototype solutions. In particular NATS was impressed by Barco's willingness to tailor its base product to simplify the interface into the existing NATS workstation, recording and monitoring software.

"Barco's contribution to the LACC upgrade program is a perfect example of its philosophy of network-centric visualization, where the graphics visualization function is separated as much as possible from the application function," explains Frank Timmermans, Senior Director Marketing & Sales of Barco's Traffic Management business unit. "The goal of this approach is to increase the overall performance of the system and to avoid possible integration issues."

The LACC system provides approximately 200 air traffic controller workstations with air traffic management capabilities and ergonomic features and will support future technological advances. All en-route traffic over England and Wales has been controlled from the current center since January 2002, controlling more than 1.8 million flights annually through 200,000 square miles of airspace, which is some of the busiest and most complex in the world.

New Terminal Control system

Barco was selected for the Terminal Control system based on a mix of commercial and technical criteria including the superior performance capabilities of Barco's ISIS main displays and the ability to meet the project's demanding delivery schedule. This LTCC project follows successful implementation of a similar system for the control of Military Airspace at the LTCC in 2003, where Barco's ISIS was first fielded by NATS. The new Terminal Control system being installed at LACC uses an innovative new console design that meets the latest human factors considerations.

The London Terminal Control Area, one of the busiest in Europe, covers Southern England and handles flights to and from London's airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City, Northolt and Biggin Hill.

In addition to the Swanwick site, Barco's ATC displays are also used by NATS at operational control centers in West Drayton, Manchester and Prestwick. Further displays are in use for non-operational purposes including Simulators at the Air Traffic Management Development Centre (ATMDC) Hurn and LTCC West Drayton as well as for development purposes at NATS new Corporate and Technical Centre, Fareham.