TPA ConRAC and Automated People Mover
Hillsborough County Aviation Authority (HCAA) is relocating Tampa International Airport’s (TPA) existing rental car facility, which is currently located at the main terminal, to a location approximately 1.3 miles south. Connecting the main terminal to the new consolidated rental car facility (ConRAC) is an Automated People Mover System (APM), which will include a station at each facility as well as at the existing economy parking garage located south of the main terminal, and a station for tramcar maintenance. The ConRAC facility is a 4-level garage consisting of over 620,000 square feet per level, including the customer service center on the top level. Its purpose is to provide the most state of the art facility for the 14 rental car agencies to operate from.
Arora was awarded special systems engineering services to provide an extension of existing systems including the Public Address Paging System (PAS) and digital signage systems including the Electronic Video Information Display System (EVIDS), direct view LED dynamic signage, and touchscreen directory system. All new telecom room layouts for both HCAA and Rental Car (RAC) tenants in the new facilities were also included in the design.
SCOPE OF WORK INCLUDED:
Telecommunication Room Design:
There are almost 40 main and intermediate distribution frame telecommunication rooms throughout the ConRAC and 4 APM stations. Of these, in the ConRAC there are over 20 rooms dedicated to the RACs. Each room is unique in its size and requirements. Arora is providing design documentation for all telecom rooms including:
- Coordinating equipment layouts between the disciplines and RACs.
- Providing full rack/cabinet elevations to include telecom, security, PAS, digital signage, and power management equipment.
- Designing cable tray layouts per room layout and code.
- Inter-discipline coordination for receptacle locations and cooling requirements.
- Designing telecom room grounding plans for each individual communications room.
- Coordination between RAC agencies for room requirements and RAC cabinet requirements.
- Coordination of UCDS between facilities, telecom rooms, and entrance facilities.
Public Address:
The public address system for the new facilities is an expansion of the existing legacy analog IED system currently used at TPA. Arora’s task is to provide the facilities with the latest network-centric announcement control system and an interface with the existing system in order to pass messages seamlessly from one platform to the other. In order to provide a complete system, Arora’s design includes the following:
- Loudspeaker layout and selection in accordance to the architecture of each facility.
- Speaker zone matrices, required wattage taps, and desired SPL for each zone.
- Required head end equipment, network distributed amplifier frames, ambient noise sensor inputs, and interconnection details.
- A hierarchy of announcement overrides including interfacing details with the APM announcement system.
Digital Signage:
HCAA separates digital signage into three systems. The Electronic Video Information Display System’s (EVIDS) duty is to display flight information. Arora is providing the facilities with 10 banks of 40 total LCD screens displaying this information. The interactive directories consist of large 70-inch touchscreen monitors that deliver passengers’ wayfinding information. Each of the five interactive directories Arora is designing also include a scanner that allows a passenger to hold their boarding pass up to in order to find a direct route to their destination and stops along the way. Lastly, Arora is incorporating six high definition direct view LED signs spanning up to 20 feet in length that will provide passengers with welcome messages, visitor information, and rental car information. Using a technical array of video hardware to manage and deliver content, Arora is expanding upon and improving the backend system to offer HCAA additional video capacity and control features not previously available. In order to achieve the distribution of information necessary throughout the facilities, Arora is providing the following services:
- Coordination with existing EVIDS content provider and HCAA’s data distribution process.
- Structural coordination in constructing and installing the EVIDS/interactive directory bank structures to which the monitors mount, as well as for installing large direct view LED dynamic signage.
- Reconfiguring the Crestron video distribution system by replacing a 32 I/O port Matrix Switcher, video control processor, and connection to the video wall system for cross platform sharing of video content. This includes a complete reprogramming of the entire video distribution system.
- Research and design of a direct view LED system that fits HCAA’s needs including specific sign control requirements.
- Coordination of power and data requirements for all equipment.
- Designing all systems to ADA standards, including monitor display heights for interactive displays and character heights for legibility.
Construction Administration, Management, and Inspection:
Austin Commercial asked Arora to provide on-site representation during the construction of the Arora designed systems. These systems include the Public Address Paging System (PAS), the digital signage systems including the Electronic Video Information Display System (EVIDS), direct view LED dynamic signage, and touchscreen directory systems, as well as the new telecom room layouts for both HCAA and Rental Car (RAC) tenants in the new facilities. For a schedule of 16 weeks, Arora will have an inspector and construction manager 2 days a week.