Opened in 2004, Bahrain International Circuit is a 5.412 km (3.363 mi) motorsport venue which is now established on the calendars of some of the most prolific racing series in the world.
The Circuit hosts a number of high-profile series, including the FIA Formula One World Championship, the FIA World Endurance Championship, the FIA Formula 2 Championship, FIA Formula 3 Championship, and Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East.
At every turn and every straight, cameras feed race information back to the Circuit’s race control room to ensure smooth race operations and essential safety protocols are followed.
With cars regularly reaching close to 200mph, speed and accuracy of messaging in the control room is critical to ensuring race control, race stewards and marshals can react instantly to any on-track incident.
The Challenge
Similarly, to the drivers out on track, the Bahrain International Circuit race control are always seeking ways to improve performance. It was essential that any upgrades delivered total reliability, with minimum latency required for instant decision making.
Specialist Bahrain solution provider PKE Gulf WLL solved the issue, with a solution that worked in harmony with the third-party processors. Technicians at PKE worked with Datapath Middle East account manager Steve Simpson to provide a solution that not only provided reliability and low latency, but also delivered new and improved ‘real world’ features to the control room which would result in an even safer racing environment.
The Solution
The control room features two 5×3 video walls plus a 4×2 display, all monitoring action from the pitlane to every inch of track with a Total of 55 SDI Full HD Cameras.
By removing the original third-party software and replacing it with Datapath’s Wall Control 10 Pro, the control room not only received the stable monitoring platform they needed, but could also take full advantage of Wall Control’s coloured borders and OSD functions.
With the third-party processors fitted with Datapath VisionSC and Image graphics cards, the 3 x video wall control room now has camera feeds able to switch to a coloured and Flashing border around the Camera Image instantly –showing stewards and Operators where any incident has occurred, how serious it is, and alerting drivers and marshals to action required. These borders are linked to motorsport’s Digi Flag protocol to ensure instant action in relation to any issues.
The Result
With safety being at the forefront of any motor race, PKE Gulf WLL have delivered another layer to accident prevention at Bahrain Circuit. On a high-speed motor racing track – possibly more than anywhere else – split second decisions can make all the difference and Wall Control’s coloured border switching feature will go a long way in assisting circuit management and uniformed messaging.
We are immensely proud of the benefits we have provided to Bahrain International Circuit”, said Gerald Zak, Senior Technical Manager at PKE Gulf WLL.
“In racing, every team tries to get the maximum of performance and safety out of the equipment available. Therefore, it is logical that the team of Bahrain International Circuit and PKE Gulf is consequently trying to get the maximum functionality and performance out of the technology already implemented at Bahrain International Circuit to provide the best possible environment for the system operators – so to say – our drivers.”
Thanks to Datapath Wall Control 10 we were able to integrated various Sceneries from the DigiFlag Panels like Sector Status or Track Warning Flags with different coloured Borders or flashing Interval into the Race Control Room Monitor wall.
The FIA Head of Information Systems Strategy added: “Bahrain International Circuit is one of the best equipped Circuits along the Formula 1 Calendar in terms of Quality and Safety Features of Race Electronics.”
Mr. Fayez Ramzy Fayez Chief Operating Officer at Bahrain International Circuit said:
“Safety is the top priority for everything we do at BIC and we are always looking at ways we can improve our systems and processes. This upgrade to our software, undertaken with PKE and Datapath, is a great example of that and we thank them for their work.”
Steve Simpson added: “The end result of this project is simply fantastic. Ideally, we will propose an upgrade to the processors used, providing even further flexibility, but I think we can all be delighted with the benefits that have been delivered by Wall Control 10. To know that Bahrain now has an even after motor racing environment is satisfying indeed.”
The post Datapath takes pole position at Bahrain International Circuit appeared first on Datapath.
