Success story
Málaga Airport SMPB
- Accurate representation of the status of visual aids.
- High performance and response time.
- Intuitive and direct system.
- Integration with devices with proprietary protocol.
- Needs for very tight response times.
- Graphical representation with GIS location and zoom.
- Improved graphic appearance and intuitive navigation.
- Robust system adapted to customer needs.
- Great integration into the other airport systems.
AENA is the public business entity responsible for civil air navigation and civil airports in Spain. Its main commercial activity is the organization, direction, coordination, operation, and administration of public civil airports, airfields, heliports, and other surfaces suitable for air transport, the management of which is entrusted to it, and of the services attached to them; the coordination, operation, conservation, and administration of the civil zones of airbases open to civil traffic.
The Beaconing Control and Presentation System (SMPB) is responsible for presenting and controlling the visual aids of an airport to allow aircraft to take off, land, and taxi on the runway, which serve for the normal operation of the airport.
The system has been designed to provide high availability through redundant systems and equipment. The system’s features allow the response time to both changes in signage and situations considered as alarms, as well as actions on field elements, to be what the client needs; in this case, the end user is the staff of the Málaga Control Tower.
Communications are made with Schneider Electric equipment using the ModBus protocol. Both the synoptic and the other screens are designed to be used via touch screens, and navigation through them is intuitive. At all times, the user is aware of the status of each of the systems they control and of obtaining the data in ‘real time’. In addition, there are data exploitation tools that have been created specifically for the user following their instructions.
It integrates different external systems that are responsible for providing data, from controlling and visualizing the status of the MEGA lighting towers distributed throughout the airport, which can be programmed for automatic operation by detecting the light intensity by sensors, to the integration of a METEO system that determines the best configuration for the elements depending on the available luminosity and visibility.
