ASL Ensures Safety At London's City Thameslink Train Station Through IVENCS 3D Control System

iVENCS 3D control system at City Thameslink station will analyse voice, data and video as per the requirement

ASL Safety & Security has delivered its iVENCS 3D control and supervisory platform at City Thameslink train station in London as part of the Thameslink programme. iVENCS is a sensor and event fusion environment in which voice, data and video can be filtered, analysed and directed from the full range of subsystems used at transport hubs. At City Thameslink, iVENCS is monitoring public address and voice alarm (PA/VA), CCTV, help points, alarm reporting and voice recorders.

The PA/VA systems employ ASL's own Vipet IP audio controller, a hardware platform developed in conjunction with the VIPA software suite that provides a VoIP and digital voice announcement solution for railway stations and airports.iVENCS is aimed at mission-critical facilities that require life like representation of events within an integrated control environment across many disciplines and subsystems. Use of a distributed and open standards-based ‘publish and subscribe' model for messaging ensures efficient use of bandwidth compared with rival ‘hub and spoke' architecture control room software. 

The installation at City Thameslink is the first stage in a three-part infrastructure project that ASL is providing for the rail division of engineering design consultancy Atkins who in turn are working for Network Rail. The Thameslink programme will deliver longer, more frequent trains across London. The Thameslink route franchise has been operated by the train operating company (TOC) First Capital Connect since 2006.

All three stations will have their own operational centres employing the iVENCS control solution

In a second stage, ASL will supply its subsystem supervisory software and VoIP hardware at Blackfriars Station, a site that poses unique logistical challenges for all contractors since it lies on both sides of the River Thames. The final phase of the project will be Farringdon Station to the north of the city's financial quarter. All three stations will have their own operational centres employing the iVENCS control solution.

ASL Safety & Security won the contract in open tender based on the functionality of iVENCS shown in successful deployment at a major international airport and at St. Pancras International Station - currently Europe's busiest rail hub - where the software controls over 8,500 field devices across 16 subsystems.

Sousan Azimrayat, Founding Director of ASL, said: "All safety, security and communication systems at City Thameslink are being represented to First Capital Connect as meaningful images in real time. Our remit has included configuration, installation, creation of training material and consideration of the end-user's corporate culture and working practices. During temporary enabling works as the station neared completion, ASL even installed an interim public address system before the central monitoring process went live."

She continued: "City Thameslink is unusual in that it is a mainline station whose platforms are underground, a feature that affected the design of many of the communication subsystems and the fully-interactive 3D GUI model created by ASL. In addition to equipment supply, ASL's software remit included an architectural design overview, operator interface design and preventative maintenance procedures."