KVM extender for high-performance applications

Especially in the ATC industry, applications always demand higher resolutions. That’s why today, 4K is increasingly finding its way into control rooms. To be able to safely remove the necessary computer equipment into central technology rooms, G&D have developed a new KVM extender system. The DP1.2-VisionXG enables the remote operation of systems and offers uncompressed transmission of DP1.2 signals.

High resolutions are not only extremely popular in the consumer segment, but also continue their advance in professional control room applications. Now CWPs (Controller Working Positions) can be designed in a way that they are provided with one large screen whose different sections visualise different applications such as radar information, meteorological information, flight plan data or flight documents. Some of the advantages are, for example, being able to display contents on a continuous area without any disturbing monitor frames and the flexibility to arrange the information in accordance with the tasks and preferences of the ATCO. But even besides that, the new displays offer the general advantage of displaying image information down to the last detail.

However, high resolutions also come with technical challenges. Computers need to be even more powerful in order to provide the required image data. On top of that even the industry standards of interfaces needed to be updated to support a range of 4K with a refresh rate of 60Hz.

Hence, G&D have developed a new KVM extender system to comply with the new standard for DisplayPort 1.2 signals. Unfortunately, high performance computers also mean lots of heat and noise – and therefore an even greater need to ban them from the control room.

By removing computers into central equipment rooms, other nuisances vanish from the working environment, too. Air traffic controllers benefit from more space as well as a cleaner working environment that is free from heat and noises emitting from computers. For the new DP1.2-VisionXG, fiber optics connect the KVM transmitter at the computer to the KVM receiver placed at the workstation. Despite distances of up to 10,000m between computer and workstation, ATCOs operate their systems in a 1:1 connection without any latency.

To ensure high video quality, the new DP1.2-VisionXG system transmits video signals transparent meaning pixel by pixel and without any compression. This way, all details remain visible even when it comes to high-resolution 4K images at the full refresh rate of 60 Hz and across the entire transmission distance.

In addition to the basic functions – the transmission of computer signals – the KVM extenders are as reliable as all G&D devices: high quality made in Germany combined with additional safety features that have been developed and implemented in cooperation with EUROCONTROL years ago, and, since then, have been continuously further developed and improved. Among them are the Screen-Freeze function (even when losing the image source the controller can continue to temporarily operate the system since the last available image is frozen) and the comprehensive monitoring tool. The system can be monitored via network interfaces – either actively via web interface or passively via SNMP. Now, technicians are able to detect and react to critical conditions before they would affect the work of air traffic controllers.

The new DP1.2-VisionXG systems expand the powerful G&D portfolio with another high-quality extender that will be presented first at World ATM Congress 2016 at stand 337.