Lafayette Parish moves EOC to state-of-the-art center

The new Lafayette Parish Communications District provides emergency services for the citizens of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, including a 911 communications center, and is the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for the Parish. The new location broke ground in 2019 after outgrowing its previous location in the basement of the Lafayette Parish Courthouse. Completed in 2020, the result is a multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art center spanning 23,000 square feet.

"We house the emergency operations center here. Any time we have an incident, officials come to the building and get the information they need to make informed decisions for the people of Lafayette Parish," says Craig Stansbury, Homeland Security/911 Director, Lafayette Parish. "After an incident, like a hurricane, this is where we would meet and assess the damage and respond to that. We can gather information and turn information over to the state, which in turn can send it to FEMA."

Accessing and sharing information is critical to the operations of the Communications District, and careful consideration was given to the selection and installation of an AV system for the new center. "We went around the country and looked at as many facilities as we could and brought back information we liked about each facility. We generally knew what we wanted in our system," says Stanbury. After an RFQ process, Interstate Electronic Systems (IES), an AV systems integrator, was selected to specify and install the AV system.

With a proven track record of integrating emergency operations centers, including the Real Time Crime Center in New Orleans, IES selected 60 Christie Extreme Series 55-inch LCD panels, with a narrow 1.7mm combined bezel width, Christie Phoenix processing node, and Phoenix Quad-T for additional 4K inputs.

"We chose Christie Phoenix because of its ‘distributed architecture’, which allowed us to build in redundancy with multiple processing nodes. Redundancy is essential in any ‘mission critical’ facility," says Lloyd Francioni, managing partner, IES. "With other systems, if there’s a catastrophic failure, everything goes down. With the Phoenix, we can have a back-up node to take over processing. If it goes down, the worst you can lose is two displays, not the entire wall. We stress very highly with 911 and EOCs, you have to have failsafe levels of redundancy."

Christie Extreme Series displays are installed throughout the facility, including a 4x4 video wall in the main Emergency Operation Center, with 2x1 displays mounted along the side walls of the center. Four 2x2 displays are in the 911 operations center. Additional displays are installed in the Director and Assistant Director’s offices, as well as the conference room.

"We can disseminate information throughout the building to different locations. One of the most important things is versatility – we can bring in different types of information. We have a CAD (computer aided dispatch) system through 911, and we can show through this system where all the police, fire and first responders’ units are on a map on our video wall," says Stanbury.

A key consideration for the Communications Center was the usability of the system. "We were looking for the most advanced equipment, but the ease of use was very important. Many of the people using it won’t necessarily be tech savvy, but it’s easy to use and set up. It’s probably one of the easiest systems to use," says Stanbury.

The installation was a success, so much so that other facilities that Lafayette Parish Communications District works with are considering Christie systems. "Our team worked very well with IES, and IES went above and beyond. They were a pleasure to work with," says Stanbury.

"We’re thrilled that IES and Lafayette Parish Communications District has selected Christie solutions for its AV system," says Maz Maeefjou, director sales and business development, Christie. "We strive to deliver best-in-class solutions for emergency operations centers and are pleased that our technology is helping Lafayette Parish Communications District deliver critical services."

"We have a long-standing relationship with Christie. There are a lot of companies who provide good systems but inevitably product issues come up. Having a trusted partner you can count on to see you through those issues is necessary to ensure the installation, and support after the sale, goes well," says Francioni.

"The AV system is the key to bringing information to officials, before, during and after an incident; it helps us to take care of the citizens of Lafayette Parish. It’s probably one of the most important systems we have to be able to do our jobs," concludes Stansbury.