Great Western Railway, one of the UK’s largest train operators, has introduced its Security Operations Centre in Swindon with Barco CTRL and a Barco UniSee 500 video wall, says Barco in a new case study. The new control room replaces a patchwork of legacy systems with a single, unified platform, giving operators instant access to CCTV, live train data and critical information sources across the entire GWR network.

Delivered in partnership with systems integrator Trans Data Management (TDM), the project demonstrates how modern control room technology can dramatically improve situational awareness and security response in the rail sector.

Great Western Railway (GWR) is a British train operating company owned by FirstGroup. Operating across the south and west of England and South Wales, GWR manages 198 stations and runs long-distance intercity, commuter and regional services from its London Paddington terminus. Its network serves some of the UK’s most iconic locations, from Windsor Castle and Newbury Racecourse to the route that carries festival-goers to Glastonbury each year.

The challenge: outgrowing a fragmented set-up

GWR’s Security Operations Centre (SOC) in Swindon is the hub for safety and security across the entire rail estate. Before the introduction of the SOC and its new team the CCTV operators relied on a conventional monitor wall displaying CCTV feeds only. Other vital information, including the live Train Information System, SCADA data, and operational dashboards, was scattered across separate screens and systems.

Operators had to switch between multiple devices to piece together a complete picture. This slowed response times during high-pressure situations such as missing-person incidents or major public events. GWR needed a ‘single pane of glass’ that could bring every source together on one platform, accessible from every operator position and the video wall alike.

The solution: Barco CTRL and Barco UniSee 500

GWR turned to TDM, a specialist with 25 years of experience delivering data and communication infrastructure in the rail sector and other mission-critical environments, to find the right technology. After evaluating options, including a hands-on demonstration at Barco’s Customer Experience Centre in Bracknell, TDM recommended a Barco solution built around two core products.

Barco CTRLis Barco’s secure control room platform that goes beyond traditional KVM over IP. It serves as the central nervous system of GWR’s new SOC, allowing operators to pull in any source, including CCTV cameras, the Train Information System, SCADA feeds, web applications and more, and display them flexibly on the video wall or at individual operator desks. With an intuitive user interface, operators use a single keyboard and mouse to navigate across all connected sources.  

A standout capability for GWR is CTRL’s Compositions feature. GWR’s network serves locations at the heart of major UK events, such as royal occasions at Windsor, the Glastonbury festival, race days at Newbury. For each scenario, operators can activate pre-defined compositions that instantly display the most relevant sources, eliminating the need to manually search and arrange feeds under time pressure.

Barco UniSee 500 forms the visual centerpiece of the SOC. The 4 × 2 video wall uses industrial-grade, bezel-less LCD panels, delivering a virtually seamless viewing surface. The video wall provides a crisp, uninterrupted canvas for the multiple feeds managed by the three-operator team.  

Barco solutions:

• Barco CTRL
• Barco UniSee 500

Highlights

• Single pane of glass unifying CCTV, train data, SCADA and other sources
• Pre-defined compositions for instant event-ready layouts
• Scalable, secure platform that grows by adding encoders or decoders

This is an abridged version of the case study. Red the full case study here.

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