- The Centers for Disease Control of Prevention recognized a year ago the need to utilize technology to respond to public health threats. According to CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding, first rate doctors, scientists and medical professionals were communicating situations and sharing finds on deadly germs in a "second-rate facility". The vision of a world-class emergency operations center became reality through a multi-million dollar renovation using AMX integration technology installed by Sytex, Inc., of Newington, Va. This new high-tech emergency response center has made the CDC better than ever: faster to respond, more reliable when communicating vital information internally and to the field, as well as proactive in taking measures to protect the public.
- "When a crisis occurred, the CDC did not have a place designed to handle centralized operations," said Ron Willis, Program Manager at Sytex, Inc. "They would set up plasmas, computers and telephones, trying to make it all work together. They quickly realized the need for a professionally designed central command area that implemented proven audio/video technology."
Gaining Perspective After 9-11
- During the anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001, the CDC experienced the true urgency in gathering important information, exchanging it with scientists in the field, and researching solutions from a single, fully equipped command center. Months later, a $3.9 million pledge from Bernard Marcus, Home Depot cofounder, ex-chairman and CEO, enabled the CDC to expedite plans for developing and housing what is now known as the world-class "Marcus Emergency Operations Center. Sytex incorporated this 7,000 square-foot communications hub with the latest control technology from AMX, which was recently recognized as a valued CDC Foundation partner. The CDC secured more than $7 million total in order to build and outfit the main operations center, nine team rooms and 85 workstations. Sytex has been a part of the operations center's entire development ever since the 9-11 attacks in New York City.
- "The impact AMX has had on how things get accomplished has been tremendous," Willis said.
War Room for Health
- Inside the emergency operation center, CDC staff navigate three separate AMX 10.4" Tabletop Touch Panels.
- "The user interface design recently went through a second revision, so everything is up to speed," Willis said.
- Tabbed by Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue as "a war room for health", the CDC central command area brings together audio, video and data feeds from scientists in the field to allow real-time analysis and decision-making. A multi-window video wall displays images from remote video feeds, cable TV and computers. Automated cameras in the room send live video from the CDC to distant sites. Sytex even took this technology-rich environment one step further by programming remote access and control of all networked equipment through custom control Web pages, a feature possible only with the power, reliability and security of NetLinx.
- "I've been working with AMX forever," Willis said. "I am a big believer in it."
Faster Response Time with AMX
- AMX integrates the emergency operations center, four team rooms and as many as 30 workstations. The center's main focus is two video walls, flanked by plasma screens on all sides. As part of an initiative called "disease mapping," the screens are programmed to light up when posting daily threat levels, to track the time in several international cities, and to identify the locale of each CDC specialty team. And with so many things happening at once, the smaller team rooms are self-contained mini-op centers of their own. Each room includes six computers, a plasma video system, several audio/video components, a single wireless AMX ViewPoint Touch Panel and a dedicated NetLinx system. The Viewpoint controls a variety of audio/video equipment, sending necessary images and audio from the computers, VCRs and tuners directly into the operations center. Sytex, Inc., made sure to add a Master260 Card to the NetLinx Integrated Controller, providing the CDC an extremely fast integration network.
- "The speed at which information can be sent back-and-forth is at a blazing rate," Willis said.
- The operations center employs AMX control and automation in reducing reaction time, which ultimately saves more lives. When the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster happened over Texas in February, the CDC used AMX integration to immediately communicate by videoconference with state and local public health officials about possible health hazards from falling debris. With the spread of the deadly virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), CDC teams are working with AMX technology to develop databases of sick and exposed patients, screen questionnaires, and communicate with health organizations (at all hours) in Geneva and Hong Kong.
