Texas water district deploys unified DVTel solution at green facility

Ridgefield Park, NJ, September 21, 2009 -- DVTel, Inc., multiple award-winning market leader in the development and delivery of intelligent security solutions over IP networks, today announced that the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) has commissioned its fully-operational central operations center, which with the DVTel unified intelligent Security Operations Center (iSOC) as the command and control software, safeguards a wide variety of facilities located across 10 counties in North Central Texas. The installation also features DVTel cameras and a video analytics package. Maez Security Consultants oversaw system specification and design, and Access Technology Systems is in charge of project installation.

TRWD is one of the largest raw water suppliers in the state of Texas, providing water to more than 1.7 million people in the North Central Texas area. Operations span a 11-county area and include maintaining dams at the Water District’s four reservoirs and more than 150 miles of pipeline used for water transport. TRWD has deployed the unified DVTel solution at upwards to 30 different facilities with video surveillance from approximately 150 cameras and management of more than 200 access control points.

The newly-completed 26,000 square foot Gold LEED-certified annex building, located in Fort Worth, is home to TRWD’s engineering and information services departments, as well as the Security department and the Central Operations Center. The state-of-the-art control room has a Winstead console with 12 monitoring stations, and a Barco video wall projecting DVTel and SCADA data, live TV, and the capability to pull up facility blueprints from anywhere in the district. DVTel’s Professional Engineering Services (PES) group worked closely with Barco to integrate the technologies to more fully utilize the functionality and capability of the combined solution. At present, the central operations center shares monitoring and command with the incumbent center located in Cedar Creek, but eventually primary operations control will move to Fort Worth, with Cedar Creek providing back-up control.

The new TRWD annex building has a truly impressive mix of “green” technologies including the largest roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panel array in Texas covering 90 percent of the building’s rooftop. The panels will provide 70 percent of the building’s energy use annually and return unused solar electricity back to the region’s energy grid. Other green features include 2,500-gallon rain water cisterns which collect runoff from the roof and utilize it in a drip irrigation system; interior paint that is low VOC (volatile organic compounds), which improves air quality throughout the building; and automatic lights and low flow sinks and toilets installed throughout the building.