SDI Delivers Highly Integrated Technology Platform for Los Angeles International Airport's New Airport Response Coordination Center

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SDI's CONOP-based SAMSON Situational Awareness Model Used To Drive Improved Operational Efficiencies, Crisis Management Capabilities Across Multiple Airport Groups

Los Angeles, June 27, 2011 -- SDI (System Development.Integration, LLC), a systems integrator specializing in airport command center security technologies and infrastructure, announces that it has designed and implemented the advanced integrated technology systems underlying Los Angeles International Airports' (LAX) new Airport Response Coordination Center (ARCC). The $13.9-million facility co-locates airport operations, airport police, and maintenance services personnel to deliver enhanced situational awareness for improved customer service and better management of operations and emergency response.

The Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the Los Angeles City department that owns and operates LAX, chose SDI, with over 20 years of live Category X airport command center expertise and a track record of rapidly delivering mission-critical security and command center systems and infrastructure, to act as its airport technology and operations integration team. During the design of the expedited 15 month project, SDI worked side-by-side with architects, construction teams and a dedicated, cross-functional LAWA team - including Facilities, IT, Police/Security, Operations teams, and Airport executives - hosting Concept of Operations (CONOPS) workshops to determine operational requirements that would drive the physical layout of the ARCC's 9,000 square foot facility, as well as its underlying technical architecture.

The ARCC's physical design accommodates airside and landside operations, Police and Construction & Maintenance Services divisions, as well as other governmental agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration. Additionally, a separate section of the ARCC, called the Incident Management Center, is activated during a major incident or airport emergency, with assigned workstations for managers of response teams. The IMC provides a collaborative environment with shared access to information used from event response through recovery, until the airport fully resumes normal operations -- reducing response time to incidents that could impact the traveling public.

The SDI-designed technical architecture empowering the ARCC spans 26 disparate technologies - including traditional security systems (video surveillance, access control, fire systems, and computer-aided dispatch), work management, gate and bus management, building automation, and geographic information systems (GIS). SDI rapidly tested, configured and deployed new state-of-the-art software and equipment, and integrated new systems with existing legacy systems and infrastructure.

"The single point of integration gives us a domain awareness that was not previously attainable with individual subsystems. For instance, we can view all CCTV cameras from a single workstation or on the video wall. We can see all types of alarms - fire & life safety, access control, CAD events - displayed together. We can automatically notify a pre-set group of people - at the same time - that an incident has occurred," states Dominic Nessi, Deputy Executive Director/Chief Information Officer at LAWA.

ARCC's integrated design is based on SDI's Situational Awareness Management Solution and Operational Network (SAMSON) model, featuring NICE's Situator physical security information management system - which shares informational and event-driven data, graphics and digital video data from all of the ARCC sub-systems on a shared video wall or on individual workstations - to provide a common operating picture to all of the ARCC users. Following its SAMSON model to bring the technology design full circle, SDI programmed CONOPS findings and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) into the business logic that drives the ARCC's Situator. When encountering a situation like a terminal evacuation and repopulation or a power failure, for instance, users are now automatically prompted through the approved procedure to respond to the incident and provided the information that they need to perform their job quickly, dramatically increasing efficiency and reducing response times.

"Bringing these groups together, in the same space, helps them get a broader understanding of how they are all impacted by events taking place across the airport. They can see what actions other teams are taking, hear what they are saying or what questions they are asking, as they manage their response to those events. Having this across-the-board improved awareness helps everyone to make better, faster, smarter decisions about their part of the response," states Jacqueline Anna Yaft, Deputy Executive Director of Operations and Emergency Management for LAWA.

Enforced by post-technology implementation training of ARCC users as part of SDI's extended tech support services, users have embraced the shared environment, and are proactively identifying new ways to leverage the center across the emergency response and operations areas. Plans to extend the NIMS-compliant ARCC technical platform are already underway, with planned initiatives - including SAMSON-enabled mobile field devices and further integration of LAX's badging, CCTV and enterprise asset management systems.

The dual-operational facility complies with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's National Incident Management System (FEMA NIMS), so that multiple levels of government can work efficiently and effectively together by eliminating redundancy and confusion during an emergency response. The LAX Airport Response Coordination Center also will serve as a crucial link to the City of Los Angeles Emergency Operations Center for comprehensive response, resource allocation and communication with city leaders.

About Los Angeles International Airport

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the seventh busiest airport in the world and third in the United States, offering more than 565 daily flights to 81 destinations in the U.S. and over 1,000 weekly nonstop flights to 65 international destinations on more than 75 air carriers. LAX is the busiest origin-and-destination airport in the U.S., with more passengers beginning or ending their journeys at LAX than at any other U.S. airport. LAX is part of a system of three Southern California airports - along with LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys general aviation - that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City's general fund. In 2009, LAX served 56.5 million passengers, processed nearly 1.7 million tons of air cargo, and handled 544,833 aircraft operations (landings and takeoffs).

About SDI

SDI is a systems integrator that fuses information technology, security, operations and facility management to support critical organization systems and data by providing advisory services, technology delivery and SmartSourcing^SM long-term support. With substantial private and public sector experience, SDI provides vendor-independent services and support to our nation’s critical environments to achieve a higher level of security, increase productivity and reduce operating costs. SDI embodies the technical breadth, depth of talent, and complex systems experience of a national, top-tier systems integrator - with a reputation of sticking with our projects until our obligations are met and our clients are successful. For more than 19 years, we’ve been there for our clients, and people are taking notice. Visit us at www.sdienterprises.com.